Children of Prophecy
by Kiss of Time
Summary: Humanity gets a fair shot in reclaiming their world and destroying the ones responsible for starting the Apocalypse. A few humans and an Archangel decide to aid the two Horsemen - one in his quest for revenge, the other in his quest for redemption. But there are a few problems; the least of them being that helping people who don't WANT your help is a huge pain in the ass.
1. The Beginning of the End

_I always thought it was strange how humans were supposed to be God's most favored creation, yet he lets us all get annihilated due to the corruption of one of his angels. So this is me trying to rectify that and giving us totally underrated humans our deserved share of kicking ass – though don't worry about Mary Sueism, the humans won't be doing ridiculous backflips while chopping heads off and swinging huge weapons around any time soon._

_But this will be, in fact, two stories into one. One half will be following the plotline of the first Darksiders game, and the other half will be following the plotline of the second game (since the stories of the two games are taking place at the same time anyway) though it'll be mostly in the background. How, you ask? Well, follow the story to find out ;)_

_The rating is somewhere obscure between T and M. Blood, severed limbs, things dying __–_ you know, the usual.

_Reviews are appreciated!_

_-Kiss _

* * *

**Children of Prophecy**

Chapter I  
_The Beginning of the End_

The sound of an old, worn out pen scribbling upon thin paper was the only small noise escaping the dimly lit room, next to the sound of the ticking pendulum of an old clock. The room itself looked like it hadn't been tended to for quite a number of days; dust had begun to gather on the aforementioned grandfather clock and on the ebony desk which a sole person was seated against in his creaky chair – everything, with the exception of the paper being written on and the small inkpot sitting next to it, was left entirely untouched. The man's single bed was unmade, the sheets hanging off on one side and lying partially on the floor; an indication of the haste in which this old man had gotten up on one morning. The floor was covered by clothes and some magazines, with papers scattered about everywhere. Some held important notes, others held mindless drivel not worth a second glance.

The only thing worth noting of importance, however, was the pen the man was holding, which was moving across the paper like a graceful dancer – the lines forming letters, forming words, forming the most _ridiculous _sentences you could imagine; if you asked the writer, anyhow. The ink flowed through the steel nib of the red colored fountain pen to stain the white with black as hastily written words were being created by the hand of an experienced writer. Concerning this writer – his aged hand controlling the movements of the pen with a certain urgency in its muscles – he knew not how long he had been scribbling down the unfamiliar words. Yes, very unfamiliar. These were not the words, nor phrases, he would ever use.

It was written in old English, very oddly structured sentences; intimidating, almost. He dared not even to glance at the grandfather clock for fear these words would escape him and flee, never to be thought of again. It was an irrational fear; he knew that much, but nonetheless he couldn't stop. This would be his magnum opus, the last thing his old hands would allow him to write, and yet it wasn't his work – he knew that much, as well. Something whispered these words into his ear, something urged him to write this all down on paper in his newly bought notebook as he so preferred to do instead of using a _computer _to do it. Somehow, the words whispered to him felt so momentous, so vital for things yet to come, for things so earth-shattering, so devastating, that they deserved nothing less but all his heart poured into writing it down.

'_Prophets, the End War, Heaven, Hell, Horsemen – what is all of this?' _he wondered in the back of his mind as he continued to scribble down the words like a possessed man. He couldn't stop now, as he was nearing the end of his twenty-something page story. Story? Was that the right word for this? The lines between reality and fiction had become blurry for him the past few days. Even when he took a short break to eat or go to the toilet, the words swam through his head, impatiently waiting to be written down on the paper. He could almost visualize this vague dream that had relentlessly haunted him; and yet he knew that his limited, human imagination wouldn't do this tale justice. Despite that, the blurry pictures were insistently dancing in his head, and he could only think: if _only _he'd been a painter. He'd never wanted to see something as bad as he wanted to see this odd dream of his – and this was disturbing to him, because this dream was most certainly _not_ a cheery one.

It spoke of the most ancient forces in the universe clashing in an epic battle that would decide the fate of everything in existence, and mankind actually played a pivotal role in this war – the End War, it was called. Demons and angels would battle on Earth, and the Horsemen would ride, bringing forth their judgment on all creatures. He could only momentarily ponder about these strange words, while recording every unfamiliar thought that entered his head as if there was someone sitting next to him, guiding his pen, telling him what to write.

And then it ended. The final dot behind the last letter of the last word of the last, _ridiculous_ sentence. It was done. His masterpiece, twenty-something pages in length; it was completely finished. He should've felt relieved at that moment, and yet he felt more terrified than he'd ever been in his entire life. His hands trembled mildly as he laid down the pen and slowly picked up his notebook, staring at the last page he'd written while waiting for the ink to dry so he could go back to the beginning of it. His dark grey eyes skimmed the page in utter astonishment at what had just flowed out of his pen like a waterfall. His greasy locks of hair which had turned white with his old age hung over his wrinkled face and eyes, but he couldn't be bothered to pull it back; he was too absorbed with his latest work.

Gently, almost afraid he would damage the paper, he turned the pages, looking back at the previous ones. One particular sentence at the beginning of the second page caught his eye. The words demanded a voice.

"And so it shall come to pass, when the Seventh Seal is broken, four Horsemen shall ride forth to punish the wicked, be they Sons of Men, Lords of Heaven or the Dregs of Hell. All upon the Earth shall be judged, and the pact forged anew." The minute the words left his mouth in his shaky voice, he wanted to laugh, a bitter grin plastered on his face. This was blasphemy. This was a ludicrous rip-off of the Holy Bible. This was idiotic, this was preposterous, it was _wrong. _

This was, it couldn't be, because it would be absolute madness if this… this was…

The truth.

He knew this was the truth. He could feel it in his old bones, shaking him to the very core of his entire being, and his soul was quivering at the very prospect of this insanity, this disaster, this _apocalypse _taking place_. _But he simply knew. The unrelenting, gut-wrenching feeling of an ill premonition of things yet to come, things that _would _come eventually; it refused to leave him.

His shaking hands turned another page, frantic eyes scanning the words like a madman, as his previously calm breathing turned into erratic panting, a drop of sweat rolling over the olive skin of his forehead onto his thick, right eyebrow, while he blinked constantly – as if just woken up from a horrible nightmare.

But in reality, the nightmare had not even begun.

He wanted to tear his hair out of his head, complete hopelessness settling over him like a thick blanket, suffocating him under its embrace as he stared at the words scribbled at the end of page six. Visions of a near future clouded his mind, gripping it in its iron claws, unwilling to let him go.

"So the world shall burn." he whispered to himself, delirious with the images in his head as he then repeated the ink words on his paper as if it were a prayer. "It will burn, and the fire will cloud the skies in its suffocating smoke, and the wicked men shall reach towards Heaven, with their cries they shall plead for salvation – and there shall be none to be found. The fire will blaze through their bones and they shall burn, and their ashes shall be reclaimed by the Earth once more."

A shudder ran down his spine, triggering the trembling of his hands to spread to his entire body. Rotting corpses, monuments of ancient times crumbling into the surrounding fire, the silhouettes of monstrous figures dragging men, women and even children into the shadows, the screams of the innocent filling the sky as they fled from–

_'Calm yourself, Zalmir.'_

A sudden serenity washed the hideous visions away, and the old man, Zalmir, blinked once, finding himself back in his room, sitting in front of the ominous notebook which had given him more trouble than any other object he'd ever owned. And while he was back to his senses again, he knew that the soft voice in his head hadn't been his own.

For a moment, he was petrified on his seat when he felt a hand settle on his shoulder with a certain gentleness – and he dared not make another move. This hand was friendly, and its warmth slowly seeped into Zalmir, making his muscles relax and the bodily tension dissipate, though his mind remained alert. He stared at the wall in front of him, and could only barely make out a shadow of something _huge _standing behind him.

"I mean you no harm." a deep, soothing voice spoke softly right above him, and somehow, Zalmir knew he was speaking the truth. He trusted this stranger completely and irrevocably – despite this man, when looking at it from a logical point of view, might very well simply be a very charismatic burglar. Yet the visions, the furious need to write, these revelations over the past few days; they _couldn't _be a coincidence. Zalmir took a deep, shaky breath as he tried to gather whatever was left of the shattered pieces of his sanity, and replied to the stranger.

"W-who are you?" he breathed, both his hands on his knees and clamping the fabric of his pants, needing something to hold onto as his entire world was being shaken up.

"I am merely a servant of the Lord." The stranger paused momentarily as Zalmir's eyes widened in understanding. Those large shadows – the silhouettes of _wings_. "And you, Zalmir, are to be his voice."

"_Me_? I'm… I wouldn't… I…." Zalmir was now completely flustered, and the hand on his shoulder gave him a soft, reassuring squeeze, calming him down once again. Zalmir had always been a very faithful man, but even with all of these strange occurrences happening back to back, he would've never thought _he_, out of all the other people inhabiting this world, would be the one to get these visions, these _revelations_. And now, an _angel _was standing right behind him with a hand on his shoulder_, _telling him he would be God's voice.

He wasn't sure his old heart could take much more of this.

"You can, and you will. You've had faith in Him all your life, and He has faith in you, as well." the angel reassured him with kindness and sincerity.

"But I… what do I do? What does He want me to do?" Zalmir sputtered, though still relatively calm because of the angel's comforting presence, and his gentle voice had the exact same effect on him like that of a serene melody being played on a piano during a quiet, summer evening.

"You already know, for you have it all written down in your book." The bronze toned, perfectly sculpted hand on his shoulder momentarily released its hold to point to his solemn notebook. The pages suddenly turned with a slight breeze and halted at page eleven – yet Zalmir's windows had been closed, and he could only assume this little trick was the angel's doing.

"Wait, but this story – I mean, this revelation, it speaks of the… the Apocalypse, doesn't it? Judgment Day?"

"Indeed it does." the angel confirmed calmly, waiting for the follow-up question. Zalmir gulped, his mouth feeling very dry all of a sudden.

"It's inevitable, then? It cannot be stopped?"

"It is humanity's fate, and so it shall be done. Zalmir, if you want your fellow men to survive, you _must _take on your duty as the Lord's prophet."

"Prophet?!" Zalmir exclaimed, tensing in his seat. The angel distanced himself from the old human, who dared glance but only once. What he saw took his breath away entirely. Pure, white wings, folded on the broad back of a tall man – if fully spread the room would be no doubt much too small to contain them. They had a soft, blue glow about them, oddly soothing, much like the angel's voice. He had a graceful poise, dressed in white and blue linen that covered his lean arms and torso, but did not hide his muscles. His curly, white hair which was tied in a low ponytail with a blue ribbon framed the sharp and handsome features of his face perfectly – his warm, golden colored eyes reminding Zalmir of the sun during dawn. On his robes, an inconspicuous belt to which hung a golden trumpet, shining dully with the small amount of sunlight that escaped through the curtains of Zalmir's windows.

"You do not have much time left. Make haste, Zalmir. Mankind's fate is in your hands."

"Wait just a moment! I cannot-" A sudden wind then blew through his house, the papers that were scattered across his room were lifted up into a whirlwind that clouded Zalmir's vision, and by the time his notes settled back on the ground, the angel was gone. However, he had left his long, golden trumpet behind, which sat in the middle of the paper chaos, glistening slightly, as if patiently waiting to be picked up. Zalmir stood up from his seat, his skin having turned pale and his eyes wide, gazing at the instrument in disbelief. His hands started trembling again, but he couldn't help but walk (or rather, stumble) over to the trumpet as it beckoned him to come closer. He bent down slightly, clasped his hands around it, and a calming warmth washed over him, but also an odd feeling of urgency; but it wasn't time yet. Zalmir cradled the thing, as if it were a precious infant, and knew one day – and that day would come soon indeed – the sounds of this horn would be the starting signal of the darkest day mankind would ever know.

He hurried over to his notebook, staring at page eleven on which the angel had left it for him, the trumpet tightly pressed against his chest as he sat back down on his creaky chair and decided to read the page. It spoke more of slaughter, conflict between two ancient forces with humanity caught in the middle – and then, hope.

"And so with the piercing call of Gabriel's Trumpet, Mankind's Champions shall rise, chosen by the Creator Himself – and they shall remain a beacon of hope for their brothers and sisters, even in the darkest of nights and cruelest of days." Had Zalmir been standing, his knees would've given out, as the sheer magnitude of his duty now hit him full force. This trumpet that he held in his hand, the _Archangel Gabriel's trumpet_, was for him to blow and to prepare humanity for the Apocalypse. It was now all his responsibility.

He, a sixty-two year old, widowed geography teacher who lived in a tiny apartment in a horrible neighborhood in Manhattan, who also was in a mountain of debt because of numerous investments gone wrong, on the brink of becoming homeless, had the duty of blowing an ancient trumpet to kick-start Judgment Day.

To say this was utter madness would be an understatement, to say the least.

Not to mention that he had no idea _when _he was supposed to blow on the trumpet. He was still trying to figure out whether someone had drugged him and this was somehow simply drug-induced, but temporary, insanity and a vivid, delusional dream, but leaving that aside, what if all of it was true? When would be the right time to do it? Was he going to get a signal or something of the sort?

He turned the pages of his notebook, but all it had written in it was a long description of catastrophic events that would strike the earth right after "Earth's Champions" would rise. It didn't give any date, nor any other useful information. It seemed more like a theatrical warning instead of an actual revelation. Demons would scavenge the lands and fight for dominion over the planet with the angels, while Earth's Champions would awaken at a crucial point and turn the tide of the war entirely – backed by the angels who had an obligation to their Creator's chosen race, and _especially _his chosen humans – it would seem that not all would be lost. That gave him a little relief, but it still wasn't something he could possibly face with a clear mind.

Zalmir Arad did not know it yet, but the day he would blow his horn was much closer than he could imagine.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the White City with all its beauty and splendor, with all its duty-bound, honorable inhabitants, with all its laws and codes and all its means to implement these rules, it still could not stop the corruption in the heart of one particular angel. By the time anyone would realize it, however, it would be far too late. However, there was one that always suspected. Gabriel had never been very _involved _in neither the military nor political affairs of Heaven, and he did not need to; he was the Lord's Messenger, His loyal servant, and he did not need to concern himself with anything else. Yet, he felt trouble brewing on the horizon. The Creator had distanced Himself from His children for such a long time that it was even, at times, impossible for the Archangels to communicate with Him. This might've led, Gabriel feared, to rebelliousness among the other angels.

As for the Archangels, who held the highest ranks in the White City, Michael had soon given up and entirely focused on his position of the Supreme Commander in Heaven, being the first angel He created. Jophiel, in all her magnificent beauty pretended not to care and always put on a smile, but it was painfully obvious she was aggravated – though, she'd been much too timid to try and reach the Lord herself, she _had _witnessed the failed attempts of her brothers. Raphael had attempted at times to talk to Him, but after being ignored for so long the playful spark in the eyes of the cheery and friendly Archangel had been replaced with a gloomy gaze. Raguel, like Michael, had settled on continuing her job as the overseer in Heaven, keeping the peace and making sure there was harmony amongst the angels.

Azrael was the most silent about this out of all of them, as he was also the most poised out of all of them – even Michael displaying hints of irritation at times when futilely trying to speak to the Creator whom had banished them from His side ages ago. Azrael, however, remained silent and solemn, not attempting to reach their Creator even once, like Jophiel, though not because of a shy nature – it seemed he merely felt like he did not have the right to question the Lord's silence.

His deafening silence.

As for Gabriel, he did not question his Creator either, even if the silence was disquieting, but he had decided to accept it, if that was what his Lord wished to do. You could imagine his surprise when he heard that familiar whisper in his ear, telling him to deliver a message. Gabriel's face had lit up with an earsplitting smile, as he, without another word to his brothers and sisters, immediately left to Earth to perform his divine duty. He finally, after all that time waiting, had found a purpose once again.

Yet, the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach would not leave him. There was something wrong, and it most certainly involved the End War. He could feel it in the atmosphere on Earth. The humans, who had no clue with their weak senses, could not feel the warning lingering in the air. But he couldn't possibly see what would follow the days after his short descent to Earth. He attempted to ask the Creator whether there was something amiss, but He was back to being completely silent – and while this was very frustrating to say the least, Gabriel did not prod. He, upon being questioned for his sudden departure by Raguel back in Heaven where he appeared before her Court of Divine Justice, told her that the Creator had given him a task to complete, but was careful in not revealing what this task was; unless his Lord specified it, he felt more comfortable keeping his mission to himself. One could never be too careful – and a few short years after that incident, it turned out his discretion had indeed been the right course of action to take.

The End War was triggered prematurely, and the White City fell into disarray – or would've fallen into it had Raguel and her "Angels of Punishment" not stepped in and kept the order. Not only had it been much too soon, but the demons of Hell had the upper hand, tearing into Earth with all their might. The humans, unprepared and having been slowly growing skeptical of the existence of such things, had never seen it coming. Millions of casualties in the first few days alone – and Heaven did not hesitate to retaliate. Gabriel decided to take watch over the Prophet, to ensure his safety.

He was about to descend to Earth through a simple portal. He was in the outskirts of the White City, over the bridge on a relatively small patch of land floating a small distance away from the others. The others would have to forgive him for abandoning them in such a time of need, but he _knew _keeping the Prophet safe was the priority right now. Yet, something kept gnawing at him in the back of his mind. For one, Azrael was not in Heaven; he was not a soldier and would've been of more use in the White City than down on Earth, and yet he wasn't. Of course, he could've gotten his own mission from the Creator, but Gabriel remained skeptical. Add to that the fact that supposedly, this had all been started because of one of the Horsemen – War – riding to Earth without cause, which was odd in and of itself, Gabriel had the sneaking suspicion that perhaps his scholarly brother knew something about what was going on. He _had _been acting suspiciously distant right before the catastrophe, and blaming all of it on the Horseman, who'd never strayed from his duty otherwise before this, seemed much too convenient to the Messenger Archangel.

Something didn't add up here, and while he should've told Michael of his suspicions, he could not waste anymore time. And so he left to Earth, in the hopes that the Prophet was still alive and that humanity still had a chance to survive.

* * *

When it hit, Zalmir felt like everything was crumbling down around him into the scorching fire and suffocating smoke.

Which was entirely true, considering his apartment had just been struck by a small meteor. But for once, Lady Fortune was kind, and Zalmir was left unharmed by the initial impact. He coughed through the smoke, quickly grabbing his sacred notebook which always lay on top of his desk, and then went to get the trumpet which he kept in the locked drawer in that very same desk. After fumbling somewhat clumsily with the key, he opened the drawer, grabbing the instrument which was wrapped and covered in a rag as he tucked the notebook under his right arm and held the trumpet with his right hand, and didn't even think about glancing around as his furniture was _burning _(the desk oddly having been left completely unharmed). Instead – the only door out being blocked by rubble – he stumbled over to the gaping hole in his wall, careful not to step on the shattered glass pieces on the floor as he was on his bare feet.

He stared down, his apartment only being on the second floor, and wondered if making a jump was at all possible, but then froze when he noticed the chaos on the streets. Meteors falling from the sky, crashing into the ground, buildings, vehicles, billboards – people screaming in panic, chaos and fire everywhere, but that was not the worst of it. These meteors, apparently, were _alive_. Monstrous things, demons was all Zalmir could call them, rose from the rubble of their impact, shaking off the earth and dust, and quickly turning to the humans, hunting them down like a pack of wolves. Zalmir grabbed at his heart with his free hand, starting to get a panic attack as he witnessed a woman getting _ripped apart _by three of those beasts, who tore her limbs right off her torso, the blood freely dousing the ground in it. Zalmir promptly turned away and gagged, puking over his ruined floor for a few seconds as he fell on his knees. Then, when the nausea had subsided somewhat, he pulled the rag off the covered instrument, laying the trumpet down beside him for a moment, and wiped his mouth off, trying to calm himself.

Then he realized, one of those meteors had landed right into his house. As if on cue, a sudden feral growl filled the half-destroyed room, accompanied by the ominous noises of rubble of rock and metal being moved, and once again, Zalmir was frozen to the ground. The demon beast that had risen from the mess it had caused, with crimson eyes, on all fours, was gazing at him with a hungry look, saliva dripping from its jaws – if he did not do something now, he would definitely get killed. The fear welled up in his chest, petrifying him utterly.

And suddenly, the trumpet in his hand sent something similar to an electric current through his entire body, reminding him he had to take action, _now_. It wasn't particularly unpleasant as much as it was a warning signal. It wasn't time, and it felt _all _wrong, but Zalmir knew this was it. The Apocalypse had begun, and whether it had been intended to or not, there was no turning back, and he had a duty to fulfill. While the demon was ready to pounce on him, Zalmir acted on pure instinct. He snatched the trumpet off the ground and brought it up to his lips, taking the deepest breath he could muster while he prayed to God in his mind, hoping this would work – and he blew.

What followed was a shockwave of sound, the blaring screaming of the horn knocked back the demon, and all the other demons in the entire city. The shockwave travelled unearthly far, the sound reaching every corner of the earth and Zalmir blew, and blew, as his life depended on it. He knew he had now alerted every single monster to his presence and his location, but it had been his responsibility as… as the _Prophet_, and so he could not forsake it. He blew the trumpet – the deep, piercing sound oddly enough not harming his own ears – for what felt like an eternity, while it had actually been just a mere fifteen seconds. And yet, it had been enough for the divine instrument to make its warning known to not only all of mankind, but to all the demons and angels as well, and not only to sound a warning, but to call forth the chosen ones; the ones destined to stand up for their brothers and sisters and fight until their last breath.

* * *

Just a few miles away, a minute or two before the trumpet had been blown, one particular person found himself in the midst of chaos – chaos that hadn't meant to be, apparently. He was entirely confounded as to what was happening. Not only were both angels and demons fighting, even _before _his arrival he would assume from the damage already done to earth, he was also completely alone. Humans were screaming and attempting to hide or run from the numerous beasts that hunted them, futilely, of course. The earth was cracked, shattered and even completely split open in some places – gaping holes revealing either a dark abyss or scorching lava brewing at the surface. Red, demonic horns, the size of buildings, risen out of the ground, their cracks glowing strangely orange were blocking several ways. Civilization had been devastated in a matter of hours.

The red-cloaked Horseman cleaned up anyone in his way, be it angel or demon, but moreover, he was searching for answers. Eyes, glowing brightly, located a familiar face in the middle of a battle of angels getting quite clearly slaughtered by the demons, hovering just a few feet in the air. His determined steps towards the angel almost made the earth tremble – were it not that the earth was already trembling due to _other _causes. The angel in question looked around in utter bemusement and disbelief.

"Impossible." the winged creature muttered to himself, looking around him to only see his subordinates getting annihilated. One thing was clear to the Horseman – this man knew something of what was going on.

"Abaddon," War spoke, his voice piercing right through the noise of anarchy around him. He reached for his legendary sword, Chaoseater, as he pulled it off his back with one fluid motion. Abaddon looked down at him. "What is this? Where are my brothers?" the Horseman demanded to know as he briefly glanced around once more, sword ready for any more battle. But the angel seemed much to conflicted to give him a straight answer.

"This cannot be. The… the final seal…." Abaddon left his sentence unfinished as a monstrous, winged demon dropped down above him, attempting to take him down. The angel managed to stop him by bringing his right hand in front of him, which the demon gladly chewed down on. A golden flash and one smooth cut took care of the problem and War recognized the angel Uriel, whom had just come to Abaddon's rescue. The demon fell down into the gap filled with lava with a disgusting last screech. Abaddon still seemed preoccupied with his thoughts, balling his fists in front of him as he muttered something to himself. War did not – or could not – care much as then a searing pain shot through his entire body and brought him to his knees, Chaoseater buried in the ground, used as something to hold onto.

"The Seventh Seal was not broken!" He heard Abaddon bellow as he glared down at the ground, trying to keep his sudden pain in check.

_'The Seventh Seal wasn't… impossible!' _War thought, hearing a sudden crunching sound and Uriel calling out Abaddon's name. He glanced up, just in time to see Abaddon being dragged into the lava by a giant, monstrous hand. The angels were losing the battle.

"What in Heaven's name have you done?!" Uriel exclaimed with blazing eyes, as if preparing to engage him which she no doubt wanted to. War managed to pull himself up from the ground, still breathing heavily.

Something was terribly wrong.

"I answer the call." he grunted with effort, his eyes narrowed as he tried to think of how this could've happened. He was absolutely certain – it couldn't have been fake!

That was when a sudden wave of sound seemed to have stopped time altogether. War froze on the spot, and the angels hovered in the air, otherwise unmoving. The blaring of a trumpet – far louder than any other sound and yet completely harmless – made even the demons pause for a moment. The shockwave brought a foreboding, but also a call, for someone. For whom, was not clear, though this trumpet was not an ordinary one. But one thing _was_ clear.

Whoever was being summoned, was a force to be reckoned with.

* * *

In that city, which the demons seemed to have chosen to have their main battle, during the blaring of the trumpet, whatever humans were left were either dead or had fled. Mostly. Some had stayed – managing to hide under vehicles, in buildings or otherwise dark or shady spots, attempting to survive. And out of these humans, only a handful would prove to be significant.

One was the former head of a now destroyed hospital, holding his two young children close to his chest while his wife was huddled up next to him – hiding in the basement as demons scavenged their house. He was the Healer.

One was a "criminal" who'd been wrongly accused of a crime she had not committed, locked up in prison with a life-sentence and had used the commotion to escape, thoughts of vengeance on the people who'd put her in there racing through her mind – though she regretted her decision immediately when seeing the chaos in the streets. She was the Avenger.

One was an elementary school teacher who'd just had been doing her groceries in a small shop near her house, and was now hiding behind the counter next to the dead corpse of the owner who'd been killed not long ago, though his murderers had already left. She was the Preacher.

One was a young woman majoring in psychology, who was now cleverly hiding under the rubble of a collapsed building, waiting for the right moment to come out and make a run for her motorcycle and hope it was still operational. She was the Trickster.

One was a US military veteran, formerly a Major General in the army, now only a chess-fanatic who'd managed to clobber a particularly stupid and somewhat small demon to death with a led pipe in a dark alleyway. He was the Strategist.

One was a savvy auto mechanic who was hiding under one of his own cars and praying that the demons rummaging through his shop would just get out and leave him alone. He was the Mender.

One was the man who had started all of this, the Visionary, and who carried the responsibility to bring these people together and fight against their invaders until their very last breath. But these humans were certainly not the only ones – all around the world, in every country, in every city, there were the few chosen ones who would give this war everything they had, but our gaze, for this story, is focused on this group.

As the Horseman was lying chained at the Council's feet, professing his innocence, the aforementioned seven humans would prove to have a vital role to play, in all the events to come.


	2. Awakening

_Well, just one review! Thanks you, X-x-Moon-X-Glows-x-X! Can't say I'm surprised, but I'd really appreciate more feedback, otherwise I have no idea whether I'm doing well or not and neither will I improve. I'm sure there have to be at least a few points of criticism? Maybe some tips or ideas? Or you can just shower me in compliments. I wouldn't mind that. _

_Anyway, I present to you the next chapter! In case you get confused with the characters, just check out my profile for their little character sheets so you, you know, don't get confused if it's too much for you to take in._

_Again, reviews are appreciated!_

_-Kiss_

* * *

Chapter II  
_Awakening_

"I'm innocent!"

Of course they didn't listen. Her fingerprints were all over the murder weapon, a single lock of her hair was found on one of the corpses, there were no other suspects – and the prosecutor didn't give a damn about the fact that she'd been in her friend's house three blocks away from the crime, just mere minutes before it had probably taken place, and that it was damn near impossible for her to have gone there and murdered her _own goddamn brothers _with a fucking kitchen knife. But no one cared, not even her lawyer really gave a damn about her fate; she was just another file waiting to be locked up in a privatized prison, owned by corporations who got richer every time the prison population grew. Politicians, paid off by these mega rich businessmen, wouldn't fight this injustice. Whatever the working class did, whatever protests they had against this corrupt government – it was far too late. Money in politics was the poison in the rose garden, slowly killing off every single principle and right so many people had fought for, while the insects – the common folk, the working class, the poor – were resigned to either watching everything die and wither away around them or flee.

Maybe they had brought this on themselves. They'd been so content in observing, maybe protesting to their friends in their own living room, but no initiative was taken. Oh, there was a huge protest at one point, but the mainstream media (who was also bought by numerous corporations) brushed it off and so the protests were quickly snuffed out; police brutality barely reported and the brave people standing up to the corruption were written off as "pot-smoking, homeless hippies".

And the poison spread.

She supposed she was lucky that the death penalty was banned in her state, but a life sentence was nothing to joke about. Any other person would've, after about five years if they were _really _strong-willed, given up and resigned themselves to her fate.

Twenty-three year old Rosanne Elwood was not one of those people.

The anger, the desperation, the feeling of betrayal, the wrath – it flowed through her veins, it grew and grew inside her chest with every single day, and she swore vengeance. Not only for her two brothers, but for herself as well. Countless of escape attempts and then numerous days spent in isolation all only added to her rage.

So you can imagine the rush of adrenaline, the hope and the feeling of sheer ecstasy when a meteor crashed into several places in the prison and caused complete chaos. She didn't even need to think twice – she sprinted as fast as she could, through the gaping hole in the wall, outside where there were, to her relief, also holes in the wrecked fence surrounding the building. Meteors were still falling out of the sky but she didn't give a damn.

Freedom was staring her right in the eyes.

She supposed that the one benefit out of prison had been the work-outs she'd done every day the past three years because of the boredom. It had helped her condition tremendously. She was relatively tall compared to most other women, had a somewhat athletic build though her muscles weren't very noticeable and she kept most of her feminine curves.

She, and numerous other prisoners who'd spotted the opportunity, made a run for it. Some of the guard futilely tried to contain the chaos, but it was far too late. Rose heard screaming around her and she assumed it was people getting shot by guards as she ran, her bright blue eyes, a nice contrast to her tanned skin, were fixated on the hole in the fence in front of her as she neared closer and closer. She shoved whoever tried to beat her to it out of the way mercilessly, climbed through the hole and ran for as far as her legs could carry her on the road.

'_So long, Bayview!' _she thought with a huge smirk as she ran through the streets. Bayview was obviously a women's prison, oddly located in the middle of a city; on the corner of West 20th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan, right across a damn sports complex, even. In the past, it hadn't even had a fence, but after recent escape attempts from several prisoners in the past years (Rose being the most frequent one with four attempts) they had decided that maybe a fence was a good idea, and indeed, it had helped greatly.

Fortunately it was not meteor-resistant.

Rose stopped after running for about ten minutes to catch her breath for a moment and feeling that the distance was large enough, as she paused in a dark alleyway and tried to figure out what her next move would be. She flipped her now messy, but always straight combed chestnut brown hair over her right shoulder and it hung over her chest, the tips reaching her stomach, as she leaned against the dirty wall of the alley while trying to remain inconspicuous, crouching down, right next to a trashcan. She ignored the disgusting odor of something rotting in there, probably cheese, and listened.

Panicked screaming. She furrowed her brows, slightly puzzled. Were so many prisoners on the loose and wandering the streets? Impossible, they wouldn't be _that _stupid, would they?

The sound of unearthly growling and sickening crunches proved her right – it wasn't prisoners causing havoc. There was something else going on. Rose went on all fours, peeking past the trash can into the main street, seeing people running, buildings wrecked or collapsed. _Meteors _were still falling out of the sky. Her eyes widened and she quickly hid behind the trash can once again. What the hell was going on? She peeked over the trash can this time, and her heart nearly stopped when she saw the most hideous creature she'd ever seen, leaping off the top of a car to tackle a man and tear him to shreds. She dropped down immediately, her pulse racing as she listened to the muffled screams of the man no doubt choking on his own blood.

What _was _that thing? Some kind of mutated breed of a dog, escaped from a laboratory? It couldn't be an animal. It didn't seem like anything even remotely from this planet. The sheer murderous intent the thing exuded was enough to make you freeze on the spot, and it was murdering whatever it could find, not to mention that from the cacophony of screaming and the crumbling of buildings and explosions beginning to grow louder, Rose could tell this was just the beginning.

Behind her was a dead end – if she got trapped here, she was done for.

And of course this is exactly what happened.

Rosanne, trying to think of what to do, trying to look for a better place to hide, was completely frozen when she heard a low, soft growling that came closer to where she was crouched behind the trash can against the wall. She held her breath, frantically searching for _any _kind of weapon. Suddenly the growling stopped, and for a mere moment, she thought she was safe. That was when the thing pounced on her.

She reacted instinctively, throwing the trash can between them so she wouldn't get utterly crushed, but the razor sharp claws busted right through the trashcan like a hot knife cutting through butter and buried themselves in her shoulder. She let out a pained cry as she landed on her back from the impact, a searing pain in her shoulder – she'd never had felt pain like that before, it almost felt like the wound was _burning_. The beast took a moment to throw the trash can between them away, and she knew this was her only shot. Rosanne reached for a shard of glass lying next to her and promptly stabbed the thing in one of its eyes.

The beast let out a loud snarl in pain and Rosanne tried to get it off her but apparently all she'd done was piss it off. The thing glared at her with its injured eye which still had the glass stuck in it, baring its monstrous teeth as it prepared to tear her head off.

That's when the shockwave of sound hit them.

The monster froze into place, completely startled, but Rose, she blacked out for a moment. A sudden surge of energy, similar to the feeling of adrenaline but essentially different, rushed through her veins as she listened to the call. It was meant for _her_. She didn't know how she could tell, or what it even meant, but it didn't really matter at that moment. Suddenly the screams of the people suffering and dying in the vicinity fueled the dormant rage in her heart. The rage she'd kept and fed over those years because of the injustice done to her, was now fed by these monsters murdering and hunting down people like they were mere prey. Like they were helpless. Who did they think they were, these arrogant, pathetic, _atrocious_ wastes of life? _They had no right_.

The urgent sense of survival was washed away with the new-found anger. She now lusted for only one thing.

Vengeance – for the fallen.

With a surprising strength she didn't know she'd had before, she kicked the large demon off her, her heart beating like a wild animal locked in a cage, and immediately got up to her feet. Her shoulder was numb and bleeding profusely, but she didn't care.

All she cared about was ripping that monster's throat out as the dying screams of victims down the streets echoed through her head.

She snatched another, larger glass shard from the ground, not caring whether it was making cuts in her hand as she, blinded and strengthened by an inexplicable rage, by a bizarre surge of energy, jumped on the beast and started stabbing it wherever she could hit it – her cuts now making significantly deeper wounds in the beast which tried to claw at her while producing an unearthly roar and made several cuts on her arms and even managed to get her on the cheek while its eyes were being stabbed out. Eventually it stopped moving, and Rose stopped stabbing, and she wondered, as she sat on top of the creature with its blood all over her – what had just come over her? She'd never been that murderous before in her entire life. Where had this extraordinary strength suddenly come from?

But, she was grateful to be alive, and yet the screams of the dying would not leave her alone. She slowly stood up, wiping the blood on her face on her sleeve, and suddenly a stabbing pain shot through her shoulder and she was reminded of the horrible wound she'd acquired from the beast. She tore off the sleeve of her orange prison shirt and tied it with notable effort around her shoulder, gritting her teeth in pain as she grunted and huffed.

Rose then turned to the beast lying down dead next to her, and what happened after that shook up her entire world.

It disintegrated into ashes and _disappeared_. She could only gasp in shock.

"What… what just…?" Rose whispered to herself almost inaudibly, gazing at the spot where the thing had been lying with wide eyes, her hands starting to tremble as she stood there, and all she could do was simply gawk. Was this a hallucination? Some kind of nightmare? It couldn't be – this didn't feel like a dream, and yet, how could a corpse of this mutated thing just vanish into thin air like that?!

Unless, this was not a thing of nature. Not even created by man in some obscure, government-funded laboratory to create some sort of weapon against potential enemies.

_Demons_. She didn't want to believe it, it should've been impossible – she'd been a strong atheist all her life, but acknowledging the fact that there were demons, in a supernatural sense, in a religious sense would be throwing away her entire ideology. But what choice did she have? What other explanation could there _possibly _be for these monsters, slaughtering people and then completely disintegrating when getting killed themselves? Not to mention that meteors were falling from the goddamn _sky._

She took a deep breath, trying to get a clear head as it was spinning at the moment, when she felt a sudden pull. Not a physical pull, but just an odd urge to get out of there and leave, feeling like she should be somewhere else. But she couldn't go out in the open like that. She needed some form of cover. She walked over to one of the windows on the wall across her in the dark alley, and took a chance. She grabbed a small rock laying near the end of the alley, avoiding to look at the numerous corpses of humans and the beasts roaming around the main road, and realized that breaking in probably cause a lot of noise, but what choice did she have? It was either that or try to walk up on the main road which would be complete suicide. She bit her lip, and with a firm grip, broke the window with the stone. With not a moment's pause, she managed to hop, somewhat clumsily, through the window, trying to ignore the pain in her shoulder as he did so, and quite literally fell through it on the ground. She scrambled up as she heard the growling getting louder, and found herself in the empty kitchen of a seemingly desolate apartment.

More growls, but these came from inside the house. She quickly snatched a kitchen knife off the counter and crouched down once again, shuffling over to the door on her right as the noise was coming from the door in front of her. When claws burst through the wood, she made a run through the other door, finding herself in the living room. It was odd how this house was left mostly untouched, and Rose vaguely wondered where the owners were as she looked for a place to hide. If she could avoid a confrontation with the severe shoulder injury, it was the best option she had.

Unfortunately, the demons had other plans. The only other way out of the living room was up the stairs, and one of them came crawling down there. Getting outside wasn't an option, going back to the kitchen door (which was being broken down) wasn't one either.

She would have to fight.

Rose gritted her teeth and tightly clenched the knife in her hand. She had plenty of experience in fist fights, but had never really used weapons. She was also utterly terrified, but the very sight of these _things, _one of which still had blood all over its monstrous jaws and teeth, and the rage once again started to boil in her veins, taking over and wiping out whatever fear she would've felt otherwise. This new-found strength, which felt foreign, as if it had been given to her and maybe it had been, would prove to be very useful. Her eyes glanced from one beast to the other as she took a few steps back, waiting for either one of them to pounce.

The impatient one on the stairs, which had been glowering at her hungrily, was the first one to jump. Rose dropped to the ground immediately, a lightning fast reflex she didn't know she'd had taking over, rolling to the right and the creature hit the wall briefly. Without another wasted second Rose lunged at it with her knife as it was momentarily flustered by her evasion. She made a deep gash in what seemed to be its shoulder, making the creature howl in pain. The other one immediately tried to attack her, but Rose ducked behind the couch, grabbed a lamp that was sitting on a small drawer, and smashed it in the demon's face.

Their eyes were a small weak spot, and the thing was only briefly stunned, which was enough time for Rose to stab it in the face. She wasn't quite sure what the trumpet call had done to her, but she felt much stronger. The beast wailed and rolled over the floor in pain. She grabbed the knife again and repeatedly stabbed it in the head, until it stopped moving.

The sickening sounds of the skull being cracked open by her knife, the blood oozing out of its wounds, was oddly satisfying.

The other creature immediately lunged at her while she was preoccupied and she was smashed against the wall, a painting falling down on top of her head. Her shoulder felt like it was on fire and she barely managed to suppress a scream in fear that other demons might be nearby, but god she was losing a _lot _of blood and getting dizzy. She instantly snatched the painting that had fallen and broke it on the demon's head with her healthy arm, then attempted to stab it in the face as well.

And then her knife got stuck in its head and she was without a weapon.

_'Fuck! Dammit!' _she thought, in a complete state of panic. She desperately kicked the demon off her, her strength once again surprising her when the demon flew and toppled over the couch, then let out a cry when straining her shoulder with that move. At this rate her arm was going to fall off her torso.

The demon recovered easily from her kick and almost seemed to want to laugh as it stared at her and lunged once again; going in for the kill. Rose raised her feet in a last effort to keep her head and screamed in pain when the teeth bore into her legs, when suddenly the kitchen door opened and a man carrying a led pipe came in. She would've sighed in relief, were her legs not almost being torn to shreds by the beast.

"Hey, over here! Here!" she screamed with desperately, trying to get the demon off her. The man's eyes widened for a moment but he immediately came to her aid, clobbering the demon with the pipe until it let go of her legs, and continued to beat the already wounded thing down for several minutes until it stopped squirming and was still, disintegrating like its other kin did a few seconds after that. The man stayed silent, catching his breath while Rose, for a moment, completely blacked out.

"You alright?" the man asked, returning her fading consciousness to his face. He was an older gentleman, she guessed somewhere in his forties. His black hair was graying and he had a few wrinkles on his face, which had a strong jaw and a crooked nose. He had friendly, dark grey eyes, and stuck out his hand to her.

"I'm alive. That's good enough for me." Rose muttered, underestimating her wounds, and took his hand. When she got on her feet she immediately stumbled and would've fallen down had he not supported her, pain shooting through her legs.

"You'd better sit down, those wounds don't look too good." the man said, leading her to the couch. She took deep breaths, closing her eyes as the man rolled up her pants, revealing the slashes on her legs and ankles. They weren't as deep as they'd felt, but they still hurt and she couldn't afford to lose any more blood.

"Damn." she cussed softly, leaning her head back on the couch, the room spinning, as the man studied her wounds.

"I'm Leonard Higgins, though just call me Leo. Nice to meet you, though I wish it would've been under better circumstances." he introduced himself formally as he stood up again. Rose blinked slowly, tilting her head in his direction.

"Rosanne Elwood." she replied in kind.

"You broke out of prison?" he asked casually, eying her orange clothes.

"Yes." she answered dryly. "But rest assured, I've never murdered anyone. Except for one of those demons, but I hardly think they count."

"Ah." Leonard only said with a slight nod, though it didn't seem he cared much. "I'll go see if there's anything here for your wounds, then. I'll be right–" The sound of a door opening interrupted him and both of them stared at the kitchen door.

"Hello?" a very deep voice called out unsurely.

"We're friendlies." Leo replied immediately, both him and Rose staring at the door.

"Oh, thank God." The door opened, revealing a somewhat short, very dark-skinned man with black hair and a trimmed beard, holding a wooden bat in his right hand. His dark eyes glanced from Rose to Leonard. He seemed about Leo's age, if not older. "Did you two kill those demons?"

"Yeah, we cleaned them up for you. Do you live here?"

"Yes, me and my family hid in the basement." The man confirmed, glancing over his shoulder. The two only then noticed there was a dark brown toned woman standing right behind him with very short, dark hair, holding the hands of two children. One of them, the boy, had curly hair and big eyes. His older sister had straight hair and a pointy nose. Those people were probably his wife and kids. "I'm Marwan Nur. This is my wife, Felicia, and my kids, Yonis and Yasmin."

"Thank you, I don't know how long we could've stayed in there if you hadn't come along." the woman, Felicia, professed gratefully.

"Well, if you'd like to repay me for my noble efforts, I'd say treating my wound would be a good start." Rose grunted, in desperate need of medical attention, as she shifted on the couch. Blood was splattered all across the floor, and she didn't know for how much longer she could stay conscious. Marwan immediately hurried over to her as his wife awkwardly stayed and watched, her kids staring up at Leo.

"Mister, what's wrong with your nose?" the youngest, a small boy, asked.

"Yonis! Don't ask such rude things." his mother reprimanded him.

"It's fine, ma'am. Kids are naturally curious." Leo replied, unbothered by the child's question, and turned to the young boy. "It's an old battle wound. I got it when I was a young soldier, serving in the army." he explained while touching it lightly. Rose listened to this conversation as Marwan looked over her shoulder injury first. He assured her that he knew what he was doing and it turned out that he was a doctor.

"Can you move it at all?" he asked, and she frowned slightly.

"Yes, but it hurts. A lot."

"That's good, at least. What about your–"

"Wait!" she breathed when he gently put his hand on her arm as he looked over the wound once more. A warmth seeped into her bones, and all the pain disappeared. Marwan blinked, confused. The both of them stared at the wound. The torn flesh was repairing itself, and Marwan's hand was exuding a golden, warm glow on her arm. "What… what are you doing?" she asked, completely befuddled. The feeling of dizziness faded away gradually.

"I-I don't know, I swear." Marwan responded, looking just as puzzled as she was.

"Daddy's hand is glowing!" Yonis exclaimed, pointing at him in wonder, his sister just gazing with wide eyes. "How are you doing that, daddy?" Marwan wanted to remove his hand, but Rose stopped him.

"You're _healing _me. By God, you're healing me!" she exclaimed as she stared at her shoulder, which was tingling and felt pleasantly warm as the wound repaired itself; not a trace of the pain was left. When it was entirely healed, Marwan slowly pulled his hand back and stumbled a few steps backwards, putting his other hand against his head.

"Honey?" his wife said worriedly, immediately by his side.

"Just a litte dizzy. But what just… _how _did I do that?"

"You're like Jesus!" Rose said with a loud, albeit hollow, laugh. "Oh this is just… first demons, now a guy who can instantly heal? I must've gone mad."

"That call, did you… feel that call, as well?" Leonard asked completely out of the blue. Both Rose and Marwan froze on the spot, knowing immediately what he was talking about. That odd trumpet call.

"Yes." Rose confirmed softly. "I suddenly felt much stronger, after that. And more durable too, apparently." she added with a glance at her wounds. The healed one on her shoulder was going to leave a scar. After all, some of the flesh had been simply torn off and apparently Marwan's healing ability only sped up the process; it did not regenerate cells. The scar was exactly in the center of her shoulder, in an odd X-shape. Leo nodded.

"I can, well, _sense _you, and the demons after I heard that call. That's how I got here. I ended up in an alleyway, and I felt someone in danger in the building next to me."

"And I did feel a certain warmth, I suppose, when I heard that sound." Marwan spoke. There was a long silence.

"So what does this mean?" Felicia asked to no one in particular.

"I have no clue, but I suppose it's a good thing so let's just roll with it." Rose sighed, seeing no other alternative.

"Agreed. Our priority is getting out of here as soon as possible." Leonard added, as Marwan kneeled down. He let a hand hover over the wound on Rose's right leg, and a sweat drop rolled over his forehead as his hand started to give out that same light again and the wound started healing itself. The two children gazed at their father's hand in awe, while the adults stared at the wound that started to heal.

"This is absolutely ridiculous." Rose muttered, rubbing her temples with her eyes closed. "Not that I'm not grateful, but, really, this _is _ridiculous."

"So how do we get out of here?" Felicia asked Leo, who scratched the back of his head.

"I can… I can feel these demons, so they won't be able to surprise us and as long as we stay hidden it shouldn't be that hard." he grunted with a deep scowl, obviously not used to this newfound gift.

"Ah, no more." Marwan suddenly breathed, having been healing Rose's other leg but then stopping halfway. "I'm completely drained." he explained, looking up at the younger woman apologetically.

"It's fine." she replied indifferently. "Thanks." She stood up carefully, and yes, her right leg had been completely healed, leaving barely any noticeable scars. Her left leg, however, was still injured but it wasn't so bad that is prevented her from walking, or possibly running. She supposed the damage done hadn't been quite as serious as she'd expected, possibly because she'd been practically choking the demon in the process of it trying to snap her legs in half.

Felicia went upstairs to get some clothes for her as Rose took a shower in their bathroom, though they'd probably be a little short since Rose was taller than she, but it was better than walking around in bloodied, bright orange clothes. When she got out, bandaged her leg and put on the jeans and shirt Felicia had given her, she found Leo and Marwan in the kitchen, with a map on the table with Marwan pointing to different roads and discussing possible escape exits, so to speak. The kids were in the living room with their mother.

"So, what's the plan?" Rose asked the two older men as she rummaged through the fridge. She wasn't particularly hungry but she needed to make up for the blood loss.

"Well, basically I go outside to get the car, we get in and we get the heck out of the city." Leo summed up.

"Sounds good." She sighed and then shook her head, pulling out some pudding. "Do either of you have a clue of what the hell is going on, by the way? You know, this whole demon-meteors-falling-out-of-the-sky scenario isn't the kind of thing that happens on any random Thursday."

"My best bet," Leo spoke reluctantly, "would be on the Apocalypse." Marwan sat down on a chair with his face buried in his hands as Rose simply gazed at him.

"The Apocalypse." she repeated with a blank expression. "I suppose that's as good as an answer as any right now. The world is going to Hell. Sure, why not." She took a deep breath. To say this was the shittiest day ever would be putting it lightly. The end of the world was nigh! Well wasn't that just_ fabulous_ news? She was certain she was supposed to feel more alarmed about it than she did currently, but it probably needed some time sinking in. Hell, she hadn't even completely realized that she'd just killed two monsters yet.

"Well, right now it doesn't matter. We first need to–"

"Honey!" Felicia suddenly called from the living room, her voice shaky and alarmed. The three exchanged glances briefly before Rose and Marwan both took kitchen knives and Leo snatched the led pipe up, as he'd let it lean against the wall earlier. Leo went through the door first, but the led pipe nearly slipped out of his hands.

"Son of a bitch." he breathed disbelievingly. Marwan followed and _did _drop his knife, and Rose quickly entered the room, wondering what could warrant this reaction.

An angel was standing in the doorway, accompanied by four other humans.

Well, that _certainly _warranted those reactions.

Rose simply gaped, completely bewildered as she stared at the angel who was completely calm.

"Er, hello." one of the humans, an elderly man, greeted the rest of them awkwardly, clutching a notebook in his right hand and a trumpet in his left, though Marwan was the only one who noticed this.

"You're kidding me. The Apocalypse, demon-meteors, and now _angels_!" Rose exclaimed, throwing her hands up. "I almost wish I was back in prison!"

"You're a criminal?!" Felicia said with wide eyes.

"What, the orange clothes weren't a dead give-away?" Rose replied derisively as she folded her arms, scowling at the other woman.

"I really doubt that's important right now." Leo muttered offhandedly at the two ladies, and looked at the angel. "And… well, er, who're you?" he asked hesitantly, gazing at the angel's wings as if he was trying to figure out whether he was hallucinating or not.

"My name is Gabriel, and we've been searching for you three for a while now." he answered. Before anyone else could ask him about this answer, Marwan intervened.

"That… that trumpet," Marwan said, pointing to the instrument the older gentleman was holding, "is that… did you make that sound, an hour ago?" All eyes were focused on the older man, who nodded nervously.

"Yes, about that, well um, we have some explaining to do." the man confirmed nervously. Rose opened her mouth to say something when she was interrupted.

"Mister, are those real?" Yonis suddenly blurted out to Gabriel, pointing at his wings, and the angel smiled gently.

"Yes they are."

"So you can fly?" Yasmin asked, though she seemed skeptical.

"I'd be happy to give you a demonstration once we leave the city." the angel replied kindly, seeming to be fond of the kids – and the kids seeming to be instantly fond of him, or rather, his wings.

The older man, his name was Zalmir, then explained everything to the other four adults who were utterly confused and befuddled by the appearance of this angel and all the recent events that had taken place while the kids were simply content with admiring the angel's wings.

It took half an hour to have all the details laid out in front of them. Apparently, three of them (Rose, Leo and Marwan) were prophets, chosen by God Almighty Himself to fight against the demons and protect the rest of mankind. Not to win, but to survive. It _would_ explain the sudden powers they'd acquired. It _would _explain the effect the trumpet had had on them.

Except it sounded so _preposterous_. Marwan and Rosanne, agnostic and atheist, had much more trouble accepting this than Leonard, who was a protestant Christian. The other three strangers also seemed to be people of faith (or they were surprisingly accepting), and Zalmir was as well, so they didn't have _much _problems with it.

Rose, Zalmir, Marwan and Leo were, by now, seated against the kitchen table. The others were standing or leaning against the wall. They'd moved to the kitchen to discuss it further, while the two children were being kept busy by their mother.

"So what, it all falls on our shoulders?" Rose asked Zalmir with a scowl. "And why pick us? Why not someone else?" Zalmir looked at Gabriel, who answered for him.

"The Lord has chosen you because He believes you are the right people to perform this duty. You can sit here all day and theorize as to why that is, or you could actually get out there and do what you were born to do." he said with an impassive expression on his face, though his golden eyes pierced right through her blue ones – it made her feel completely uncomfortable and so insignificant. "To me, it seems like an easy choice to make."

"Alright, so what do we do? Stay here and fight until we drop dead?" Leo asked wryly.

"Possibly. Your role in this war is, either way, to fight. There are still humans in this city that can be saved. If you abandon them and run, you would be abandoning your duty and therefore abandoning the Creator. I'm sure you can imagine the consequences of that." Gabriel answered him quietly.

"So you're forcing us? Do it or be punished, is that it?" Marwan said, biting his lower lip. Gabriel's cool gaze turned to him.

"No, I'm giving you the simple truth. Does your army not punish deserters? Does your society not look down and spit upon cowards who forsake the weak in their hour of need? Why should this be any different?"

"He has a point." Leo mumbled. Rose merely glowered, but did agree that if they had the power to save the other people still alive in the city, they should at least try – if only to help her sleep better at night, knowing she tried, even if they'd fail. Then again, if they failed she'd imagine they'd be dead so sleeping shouldn't be an issue either way.

"But where do we even start? The whole city is infested, and I don't know if you noticed, but New York is a _big _place." Marwan remarked, folding his arms.

"Not to mention that I think I am the only one with any real combat experience." Leonard added dully.

"I'm well aware of that, but you have _plenty_ of time to train, and build a base camp. The demons underestimated you. No one but me and the Creator Himself knows of your potential; to the demons you're nothing more than ants." the angel told them. "Besides, I think you'll fare much better against them with _decent _weapons." he added, glancing at Leo's led pipe.

"What about my kids? I can't keep them here around these monsters." Marwan then asked with a frown.

"I will protect them until they're old enough to fight for themselves, but I will not leave Zalmir, and we _will_ stay in this city. Your best shot, Healer, is to stay here and fight. If you flee, you will be hunted down eventually and die a coward." Gabriel said rather bluntly. Marwan gulped, but nodded in understanding, albeit reluctantly.

"Wait, what did you just call him?" Leo asked a little confused. Gabriel merely glanced.

"Healer. That is his role, is it not?"

"What of the rest of us?"

"I'll tell you in due time." Gabriel ended that topic of conversation smoothly. There was a short silence, before one of them decided to speak up again; if only for the sake of speaking. In their silence, they could hear the destruction outside, so they covered their ears with words.

"I guess everyone agrees with this plan?" Rose asked, looking at the others. Marwan and Felicia seemed willing enough to do whatever the angel proposed, as did Leo. Then there were the others. Zalmir, apparently, was the one responsible for bringing them all together.

Then there were the other three people. Two were women, only one of them a man.

One of the women was even taller than Rosanne; a slender, pale-skinned woman with somewhat dark green eyes, and large, dark red curls. Her name, if Rose remembered correctly, was Vivian Friedman.

The other woman was slightly shorter than Rose, with a bronze skin and black hair tied in a messy bun with hazel colored eyes. Rose couldn't quite remember her last name as it was a foreign one and hard to pronounce, but the woman's first name was Dilara.

Then there was the lean Chinese man with a beige skin named Liwei (again, Rose failed to remember his last name as well) with spiky black hair and eyes so dark they almost seemed black as well. Those three – Vivian, Dilara and Liwei – seemed to have already accepted their lot in life. They hadn't spoken up much, and the conversation had mostly been between the others. Rose vaguely wondered what powers they had gotten after the call.

Either way, it wasn't like there were many options. Like Gabriel had said, it was an easy choice; stay and fight to their last breath to die for a cause, or flee and accomplish nothing to die a coward.

"So, base camp would be… well, this place, then?" Liwei spoke up hesitantly, looking around as he was leaning against the wall. The angel nodded, standing across the room near the door.

"Gabriel?" the red-haired woman (her name had momentarily slipped Rose's mind) asked softly. "What did you mean when you said we had plenty of time?"

"Ah, yes." His wings moved a little as he rolled his shoulders – he seemed tired. "As the Creator's chosen ones, you will age _much _slower than your fellow humans. After all, it would be rather silly if you died after only fifty years or so due to old age. This war will last much longer than that, I'm sure."

"_What_?" Dilara, the short, black-haired woman, spoke up. "Are you saying we're immortal now? In a way, at least?"

"Not exactly, but I suppose it's similar in a sense."

"What about my family?" Marwan asked immediately. Gabriel shook his head.

"They'll age and die like regular humans."

"But that's… are you expecting me to watch my family age and wither away?!" the doctor exclaimed, outraged by the very thought.

"They're better off this way." the redhead (Vivian! That was her name!) said calmly. "I'm sure you wouldn't want them to live in this hellhole forever, no? Besides, the afterlife is now a certainty. You have nothing to worry about." Her words had something oddly _alluring_ about them. The way she spoke in that mild-manner, but confident way with her soft yet clear voice was very persuasive, and Marwan found himself agreeing without thinking twice. It was something in her eyes, something in her tone – Rose found herself wondering if this was her gift.

'_A healer, a sensor, someone with supernatural persuasion – and what do I get? Some extra strength.' _she thought, finding herself envying the others.

They continued discussing what to do – how to ration food, for one, and how to battle these demons. Gabriel, of course, agreed to get them some proper weapons and show them how to fight properly. As for the saving of humans, Leo could sense the presence of others in the vicinity, so after the angel trained them, they would go out and search the area for any survivors.

Besides, like Gabriel had said, apparently, they had _plenty _of time to train.

And so, a hundred years pass by.

* * *

War could already tell that the Watcher was going to be a royal pain to deal with. Not only did the Sprite have an awfully grating and annoying voice, calling someone a "dog on a leash" generally did not win you much sympathy. Either way, it was all the more incentive for him to get moving. The sooner he found the ones responsible for tricking him, the sooner he'd be rid of the creature hiding in his gauntlet and watching his every move. But this did not hinder him in cleaning up the remnants of the Third Kingdom – walking corpses reanimated by the dark energy of demons – for one bit.

He eventually found himself staring over a ruined city; a gigantic tower visible miles away, far taller than any building left standing, with the giant demonic horns spread all across. He was at the edge of a half-destroyed building, as he looked around. Quite some time must've passed for the demons to have built that atrocious building, not to mention the streets seemed completely void of any human life.

"How long was I gone?" War questioned, and the Watcher, floating behind him, flew to his side.

"In Earth years? About a century. Long enough for most of the mouth-breathers to die off." War glanced sideways at the disdainful Sprite.

"Most?"

"Some have managed to survive, and a few of them are living in this city with the help of an Archangel. We may even run into them. Rumor has it they were supposedly _chosen_ by the Creator Himself to fight off the demons." The Watcher snorted, evidently unimpressed. "Personally I just think they were lucky."

"So then not all is lost." War muttered, but his gazing over the ruined city was interrupted by the shaking of the building which seemed it was about to collapse, the floor above him starting to crumble down. With an enormous leap he jumped off high into the air, landing with not much subtlety down on the concrete. He heard a mild laughter at his little show, and after that, finding Vulgrim proved to be ridiculously easy as he appeared before him almost immediately. The eccentric demon seemed to know something about the Destroyer, or at least, he knew where to find the answers – the gigantic tower in the distance. But apparently, getting in the tower was a different matter all together, and Vulgrim refused to give him any more information until he got more souls.

"Feed my hunger, and I'll feed your curiosity." the demon had spoken to him with a grin.

So there, he was off to collect more souls like some sort of errand boy.

This was utterly degrading.

He wasn't keeping much of an eye on the number of souls he gathered as the Watcher probably did it for him while he killed the demons or the Wicked (the names of the mutated human corpses, the Watcher had told him), and with his powers restricted and stripped from him, it was going agonizingly slow. Where once he'd easily gotten rid of these lower-class enemies with a mere swing of his sword, now it took him quite the effort to actually get it done, and he was progressing far too slowly.

Then, at one point, he noticed a faint movement in the shadows of an alleyway. He figured it was just more Wicked and concentrated on the enemies in his direct vicinity instead. Once having taken care of those ( "Still not enough souls, Horseman," the Watcher had sneered derisively) he turned to look at the alleyway once more. A few seconds passed. Another faint movement, but not the clumsy and slow stumbling of the Wicked. It was calculated, fluid. Demons, then? He started walking towards it, when suddenly an arrow shot out of the shadows, and he dodged it in the nick of time, stepping to his left immediately. The arrow easily _sliced _through two windows of one of the numerous abandoned vehicles, and then went right through the wall of a building, creating a small hole as it punched out a few bricks on impact. War narrowed his eyes slightly, and the figures in the shadows came out.

Humans. One a red-haired woman with bow and arrows, the other two both men, one of them looked relatively young and the other one somewhat older.

"Stay where you are." the woman warned composedly, her soft voice having something suave about it as she kept her arrow trained on him. The older man was carrying a large axe on his back while the younger one had a simple, black spear.

"I have no quarrel with you." War responded as he studied the humans. They seemed reluctant to actually fight him, but were also more than prepared to do so if it came down to it. Either way, he was mildly impressed they managed to survive for so long. Mildly.

The older man folded his arms as the woman kept her razor sharp arrows aimed at him.

"You're not a demon, not an angel, not a human either. Who are you?"

"Not an enemy, unless you intend to make me one." War replied to the man, though his gaze was focused on the woman who didn't seem to want to put her weapon away. Her dark green eyes were coolly focused on his face, not seeming much intimidated; whether because of bravery or stupidity, War couldn't quite tell.

"Are you, maybe, by any chance that Horseman who decided to prematurely start the Apocalypse?" the younger man suddenly asked in a very dry and casual tone, shifting his weight on his right foot as he kept his hands in the pockets of his jeans. The Horseman in question wondered where he'd gotten that idea, as in Earth years it had been a hundred years ago when he'd first shown up. Someone, probably that Archangel, had told them about what had happened here during that time. The older human turned to the young man.

"What are you talking about, Liwei?" he questioned with a frown.

"He fits the description Gabe gave." The younger man, Liwei, looked back to War. "Well, are you?" There was no anger or accusation in his tone, which was a little odd to War. He certainly knew how _he_ would've felt if he'd been in their shoes. The Horseman scowled at this question.

"I am not to blame."

"And why should we believe that?"

"Whether you do or don't doesn't concern me. I have bigger worries." War decided, and started walking away, having had enough of standing around and talking when he should be doing something productive.

"If you are not to blame," the red-haired woman suddenly spoke again, "then who is?" War paused, stopping to look at the three humans once again.

"I intend to find out."

"Oh? Maybe we could help?" Liwei suggested cheerfully. The older man gave him an annoyed glance, but the woman seemed to simply ignore him.

"No." War responded without thinking twice. They didn't look like they'd be much help and would probably just get in his way, not to mention that he couldn't use any more humans dying because of him right now. Liwei opened his mouth again with a frown, when a growl interrupted them.

More demons to kill.


	3. Daybreak

_Woah, a lot more feedback than I expected!_

_Big thanks to** Mistress of Destruction, X-x-Moon-X-Glows-x-X, Azrael, Guest, Twisted Unicorns, Dupa Apud **and **Silver Peak**. I really appreciate it, guys!_

_So, I wasn't planning on releasing this chapter so soon, but because of all the surprising support I suppose I'll give you a little treat for just this once and break up my schedule. I wanted to do only one chapter every two weeks or so, but I'll post it up REALLY early this time!_

_Hope you enjoy!_

_-Kiss_

* * *

Chapter III  
_Daybreak_

"Liwei, incoming."

Liwei ducked in time for an arrow to fly right over his head, brushing his hair, and hit the arm of a Phantom Guard who'd been about to attack him from behind, and the arrow pinned the creature to the ground. The demon with the stunted wings and craggy face growled but Liwei promptly drove his spear, which had sharp points on both ends of the staff, into its neck, and severed its head. The spear was lighter than a sword, but just as deadly if handled correctly, and had a great reach. But, he wasn't much of a heavy hitter like Leonard – he attacked rapidly and his fighting style was mostly speed-based. Especially since his gift from the Creator had been heightened reflexes, which sounded pretty lame, but it made him much harder to hit. Plus, eavesdropping was a lot easier and he could see much better in the dark. Downside to that was that nasty odors were much more prominent.

Liwei turned to glare at Vivian with her ever-steady gaze, who was standing a safe distance away, guarded by Leo who hacked and slashed through the Wicked with his large axe – which he'd named "Bitch Killer" – trying to keep them away from her as she fired off her arrows. These arrows were each embedded with a specific rune, courtesy of Gabriel, and she'd memorized the meaning of all of them. Some packed an extra punch, others were incredibly sharp, some exploded or electrocuted their target. Liwei himself actually _made _the arrows for her with scrap materials – to think one of his own creations nearly injured him was pretty damn infuriating. She herself could make them as well, but Liwei was quicker and more skilled with his hands.

"You nearly hit me!" Liwei proclaimed annoyed as he took a few steps back, dodging a few attacks from the Wicked. Vivian glanced over at him.

"You ducked, didn't you?" The Mender sighed at her apathy, and promptly cut off the arm of an enemy, then kicking the Wicked down to the ground and crushing its skull by driving his spear through it. A hundred years of training and experience had desensitized him to the sickening crunch of bones and the blood splattering on his boots. These Wicked were pretty easy to clean up, but those damned Phantom Guards could be a real pain in the ass if they managed to gang up on you. Liwei's gaze briefly shifted to the Horseman who was a few feet away.

He certainly didn't seem to need _any _help. The large, odd, black sword was being swung around with a certain ease and a certain unrelenting viciousness that was not just part of the skillfulness of the wielder; it was coursing through his veins, in his very bones, reflected in every movement – Liwei knew this because there was no other way to describe the atmosphere around the Horseman. It wasn't a simple blood-lust, it was the most inherent ferocity and strength he'd ever witnessed.

However, there was something off about it. With such power, you'd expect the demons to be chopped into pieces like sushi, yet the Horseman's style didn't fit his strength. It was as if something crucial was missing.

Still, he managed to cut down more demons and Wicked than Leo and Liwei had combined. Soon the enemies were all but defeated, and this time, Vivian decided not to aim at the large man with the giant sword. Liwei made a disgusted face as he looked at his boot which – were those pieces of brain?!

'_Nasty!' _he thought as he shook his foot, though the pieces did disintegrate eventually, together with the corpse.

"You're not half-bad." Leo said to War with a mild grin. The Horseman simply sheathed his sword on his back again and didn't respond, instead opting to walk away, turning his back on them.

"Hey, come on! We can be helpful! Why don't you just tell us–"

"No."

Liwei frowned disappointedly, and then turned to Vivian, who nodded slightly.

"Horseman," she called, making him halt for a moment, "we deserve just as much retribution as you do." This made War look at her, and she had eye-contact. "Why don't you let us aid you? You've already seen we won't be a liability in battle." Her eyes glowed mildly as her gift of persuasion started to take effect. The eye-contact was of course the most crucial part of it, but also a weakness since she couldn't use it on multiple targets at the same time.

Over the years she'd perfected it to the point where she could talk lower-class, weak-minded demons into turning against their kin, and sometimes committing suicide, even. Both Liwei and Leo were convinced it would work, as she'd never failed them before. And for a moment, it seemed to work as his otherwise grim expression relaxed for a moment – until then his eyes narrowed.

"Whatever you're doing, stop doing it." he warned harshly, and Vivian blinked, the mild glow in her eyes fading away. She was taken aback for a moment, but then smiled lightly.

"I see." she murmured softly, as if she were amused. "Either way, the offer still stands. You'd be wise to consider it." She turned to Leo and Liwei. "Let's leave. It's getting dark."

The two men exchanged puzzled glances as Vivian started to walk back towards the camp. They looked briefly at the Horseman who was also leaving, and followed the red-haired woman.

"What was _that_?" Liwei said, befuddled by her failure. Vivian still had a smile on her face.

"It seems I still have much to learn." she responded cryptically, making Leo scowl for a moment.

"I thought you already mastered your gift."

"Apparently not. His will was too strong, and I lost control." she admitted.

"Then what the hell are you so happy about?" Liwei questioned, still confused. Vivian chuckled.

"I've found myself a new challenge."

* * *

Immortality. This simple concept had seemed like a faraway dream to mankind, only possible in fiction and movies, in numerous legends and myths. Eternal youth, no more fear of death – if you asked Dilara, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Especially when you were in the middle of the Apocalypse. Then again, what God had granted them hadn't been immortality. It was just a ridiculously slow aging process, but you could say they'd all had a taste of what true immortality might be like.

Suffice to say that it got tiring after a few years.

She was on patrol around the area of their base camp, which was guarded by regular patrols, barricades and wards (courtesy of Gabriel). It was the only splinter of light in a city that had been otherwise completely swallowed by evil. They had an entire block, stretching from Marwan's house to the old Bayview prison, which was being used to stock weapons and ammo, books from a destroyed library they'd managed to salvage, food from supermarkets or from hunting they did (mostly birds and fish), and it was on top of all that a place for children to stay, where they would be mostly safe. All other houses around the prison were used at outposts, and it was where most of them spent their time. They had gathered about a hundred-and-seven survivors in the beginning – pathetically low compared to the initial population of the once glorious city, but it was better than nothing. Over the years that number had shrunk to forty-three. Every now and then a baby would be born, but it was not nearly enough to keep the number from going down. If the war didn't end in the next few years, Dilara feared it wouldn't be soon before they were all killed eventually – they could only hold on for so long.

The black-haired woman vaguely remembered what it had like been a hundred years ago when they'd just started out, though it seemed like a distant dream now. Gabriel had proved to be a merciless trainer; even during spars with _actual _weapons he would not hesitate to cut you if that's what it took for you to catch up. Marwan would immediately heal you afterwards, of course, plus most of the wounds weren't too deep, and it _had _been a necessary evil. In order to survive, they'd all have to get used to brutal combat and what Gabriel was teaching them was just the basics. They'd honed most of their current skills in actual combat. Naturally, some people were better with certain weapons than others. For the, well, _normal _humans, it was best to simply stick with guns and home-made bombs, courtesy of Liwei.

As for the "Prophets" (even after a century she'd rather not use that word), they had found their preferred weapons over the years. At first every one of them had started out with swords. These Gabriel had collected from the dead corpses of demons he'd swiftly killed, and these were used by them. After about, say, ten years or so of training and actual experience, everyone had grown skilled with using whatever pointy weapon to defend themselves in close quarter combat, though some were better than others. Dilara herself knew she detested close-range combat, but she had a great aim, so she'd taken a liking to throwing knives. Not to mention, her specific gift from God was conjuring illusions from her mind. Most lower-class demons were stupid enough to easily fall for a mirage and attack it while giving her the opportunity to strike from the shadows and end it quickly.

Marwan simply did _not _fight. He could not afford to, either. The healing drained a ton of energy from him, and he was far too useful to be put into the danger of combat like that. His healing ability had reached its peak; not even the smallest scar was left after he healed you. Of course Zalmir didn't fight either, he was too old. He had vague visions every now and then, sometimes warning them in case the demons planned an attack on the base so they were rarely caught by surprise. But, even if they were prepared, a casualty or two was inevitable. On lucky days, maybe only a lot of injured.

Hazel eyes watched the street for anymore movements as memories swirled though her head. She could barely remember her life before this whole war; it was such a long time ago, and she longed heavily for the simpler days.

"Lara! Need to switch?" a voice called out to her. The young woman looked over her shoulder and spotted three young survivors walking around in the distance, feeling incredibly old when she remembered these _kids _she had witnessed being born just a mere twenty years ago.

"I'm fine, guys. Don't stray too far away." she warned, giving them a short wave.

"Okay, but it's getting dark soon. Are Leo and the others back yet?" one of them asked, a little concern in his voice. It had been four hours since they'd left on a hunting mission as their food supplies were running low. Usually it took them about three and a half or so. Dilara shook her head, a few of her black bangs falling in front of her eyes with the movement.

"Don't worry about it, if they're not back in another half hour we'll go looking for them." she tried reassuring them.

"Alright, watch yourself, Trickster!" The three waved back and walked in the other direction, back towards the base camp. Dilara watched them until they disappeared around the corner, and continued her patrol around the border of their camp. She futilely tried to fix her bun which was now a complete mess as her eyes were vigilant, and sure enough after about fifteen minutes she spotted three figures in the distance, walking towards her. The red hair on the woman immediately gave away who they were. Dilara waited until they were only a few feet away from her before she spoke up.

"That took you longer than usual." she remarked with a mild frown, and slightly tilted her head while waiting for an explanation. Liwei shrugged.

"We ran into War." he said casually.

"That bad, huh? No injuries?" Dilara responded, a little surprised as she took a few steps forward and looked the three over. They seemed mostly unscathed, except for the few minor cuts here and there. "How many demons were there?"

"No, no, not war as in _battle_, but War as in the _Horseman_. You know, red cape, giant sword? Crappy attitude?" Liwei clarified while Leo rolled his eyes. Dilara frowned a little, crossing her arms.

"The Horseman? He hasn't been seen in a hundred years. Why did he show up now?" she asked confused as she walked with the others toward Marwan's house. They'd heard the story from Gabriel ages ago, they'd all known how this had happened. Why was he back _now_?

"The Horseman insists he's innocent." Vivian clarified, her eyes fixated on the road ahead. "He says he wants to find the one truly responsible for all of this. I'm inclined to believe him."

"You're serious? Vi, this guy started all of this. Everything we've _been _through is because of him!" Dilara protested with a frown. Vivian's eyes shifted to her with an ever-steady gaze.

"He has no reason to lie. Besides, even if he is lying to us, I'm not about to stop him from killing demons for us. Either way, it could work to our advantage. He doesn't seem to be a threat to us as of yet." the redhead argued nonchalantly, her eyes suddenly having a soft, green glow about them, but that subtle charm of hers had won Dilara over before she'd even known it.

"Damn you." she huffed, and Vivian smiled lightly, an amused twinkle in her eyes. It wasn't that big of a deal, however, since Vivian's "persuasion" (if you could even call it that; it seemed more like some form of supernatural brainwashing) only lasted for a few minutes at best."So what if he does become a threat?"

"Then we take care of him." Leo answered, brushing some dirt off his shirt.

"You say that as if he's just going to serve his head on a silver platter. I doubt it would be that easy."

"Why don't we just, ya know, _help_ him?" Liwei intervened, sounding a little tired with all this talk. The three others stared at him with frowns on their faces.

"Why should we?" Dilara questioned.

"Well, think about it," Liwei started to clarify, pulling his hands out of his pockets as he made mild gestures while he continued to speak, "War obviously wants to go after the guy that tricked him. I have a feeling that whoever it is, he or she is a huge player among those hell bitches. If we take him out, there's no doubt we'd cripple the hell bitch army as well – and we'd just be one step closer to ending the war. Plus, we'll get our revenge and all that, that is, if War isn't lying."

There was a silence as the others considered it. Dilara could see the logic behind it, but wasn't it risking too much? There were only seven of them – two unable to fight, which left five. They couldn't all go and leave the base camp defenseless, so the most they could spare was three, and that was only if either Leo or Rose stayed behind. Though, why would they risk it if they could simply wait and see, try to outlast the demons? She'd rather play it safe.

"It would be a good plan, if we were trying to win the war." she remarked eventually. "But we're not. Our job is to survive, remember?"

"Crippling the army could also help us survive. It's not necessarily to win the battle, but at least to buy us some more time." Leo argued against her. "We're stretched thin – you and I both know we won't last for much longer. If we strike them first, deal a fatal blow, it could increase our chances."

"Or it could just make them angry and launch a serious attack on our camp. I still don't think it's worth it; we don't even know if we can trust that guy." Dilara replied stubbornly, and then the three of them turned to Vivian, who'd been silent.

"I think," Vivian spoke slowly, "I'm with Leo and Liwei. But we should discuss this with the others first." she stared at Dilara. "Playing it safe won't keep us alive forever." The black-haired woman just rolled her eyes and looked away, though there was some truth to Vivian's words, and she wasn't using her gift. Her eyes always glowed mildly when she used her gift; the eye-contact was crucial.

"Yep, the Preacher is right – as always. Let's find the others." Leo said with a short nod, and the four of them took off towards Marwan's house. It was their meeting spot, also the place where obviously Marwan, but also Zalmir and therefore Gabriel stayed in. They could call up the others from there.

"So did anything else happen aside from your little run-in with the Horseman?" Dilara asked as she stared up at the sky and noticed it was getting dark.

"A few demons tried to ambush us. Wasn't much of a problem." Leo answered. "Though the Horseman didn't seem as powerful as I'd imagined."

"Yeah, I got that feeling too." Liwei agreed with a nod.

"Oh?" That was certainly an interesting little tidbit of information. If he did become a threat, then maybe their odds were better than she'd initially thought.

"He took off right after that. I'm telling you, that guy has _no _manners." Liwei remarked with a slight scowl. "And here we were offering assistance and everything!"

"You should be thanking him for his consideration. I'm guessing that whoever he's going after isn't going to be some pathetic, scrawny little demon. Had you come with, then it might've turned ugly. For you, that is." Vivian commented dispassionately, and it was impossible to tell whether she was mocking him or being genuine – which is what made it all the more infuriating when she played with words like that. Liwei settled on glaring but still not quite glaring at her, and suffice to say he looked conflicted.

They finally arrived at Marwan's house. They didn't even bother knocking at this point and walked right in. Aside from cleaning the place up, it hadn't changed for a bit compared to a hundred years ago – except for the fact that it was _only_ Marwan's house now. His wife and kids had passed away years ago; his wife of old age, his daughter killed when she got ambushed during a patrol around the block, his son killed during a hunting trip. He'd gotten over it after all that time of course, but no matter how much time passed, it remained a huge black spot in an already dark history.

They found Marwan sitting on the old, dark brown couch in the living room, seeming to be taking a nap as his eyes were closed. He opened them and blinked when they actually greeted him, and yawned before mumbling a "hello" back.

"Where are the others?" Leo asked as he sat down next to him, as did Dilara. Vivian settled for leaning against the wall as she put her bow and arrows to lean against it as well. Liwei sat down on the stair steps, right next to where Vivian was.

"Zalmir is upstairs, and Gabe left a while ago. Said he had something to take care of, but he was taking too long so Rose–"

"Guys! A little help here!"

Rosanne had just gotten in the house through the backdoor in the kitchen, and was apparently struggling with something. Leo and Dilara were the first ones to stand up and go to her aid when she came through the door herself – supporting an injured Gabriel. His white robe and parts of his light, silver armor was stained in blood, the feathers of his wings seems ruffled and his hair was loose and messy, bangs over half his dirt and blood-covered face

"What the hell happened to _you_?!" Liwei said astonished, standing up so Leo and Rose could sit Gabriel down on the couch.

"Nothing serious." he muttered with a deep scowl, despite the fact that his leg looked like someone had taken a bite out of it. "There was an ambush, lots of demons." Marwan knelt down and started healing him immediately.

"Where did you even go? You just got up and left." the Healer asked with frustration evident in his voice. Gabriel let out a deep sigh, his hand absently going over the feathers on his wings.

"It was just an idea that occurred to me, a few years ago. I didn't have the means to plan it out, but I heard Raziel was just near the outskirts of the city and I figured–"

"Wait, back up." Rose interrupted him brusquely. "What plan, who is Raziel, and how did you find him?"

"To answer your first question, I was thinking about restoring the rest of mankind."

There was a short silence.

"This is one of the worst jokes I've ever heard." Liwei noted with a frown, but the angel shook his head.

"You had no means of knowing, but quite frankly, your race is dying out all over the world. Several countries have already been completely wiped out and claimed by the demons, and if this keeps up it won't be long before this country – this city, goes down with the rest of them." he explained while he stared down at Marwan, who was nearly done with healing as his flesh repaired itself.

"You know, I always thought you were supposed to be the bringer of _good _news, not the bringer of the most depressing news ever."

"I am merely a messenger; whatever the message contains is not up to me, but let's not derail the conversation now." Gabriel responded to Liwei sharply, making it clear he wanted to move on. "In any case, I didn't know how you could _possibly _restore an entire race, but I did hear of one who would know where to start. Raziel, the Angel of Mysteries, the most knowledgeable angel I can think of – and also the most insane. He would surely know a way, but tracking him down was another matter."

"So how did you find him?" Marwan asked curiously, having done with healing him and standing up again. Gabriel looked down at his leg and stood up as well, feeling uncomfortable sitting like that with his wings being cramped up in a tiny space.

"As you know I keep connections with the Hellguard who are trapped here like every other angel. One of their scouts in the area saw him a few days ago in the outskirts of the city. I would've told you, but I couldn't risk losing his trail. He's very fickle."

"So you went to see him to talk about this _insane _plan, and you got ambushed?"

"Yes, but only on my way back." His golden eyes shimmered with self-satisfaction. "I did find him, and had a little chat. He's a hard one to reason with to most, but he couldn't refuse me, of course."

"Yeah, yeah, tone that smugness down a little." Leo mumbled as he leaned back into the couch. "What did he say?"

"All he knew was that the most logical place to start would be the Tree of Life. Or at least, that's all I got out of him before he went back to his odd mumbling and ignored me." The Archangel answered "It's a miracle the demons haven't managed to kill him yet." he added thoughtfully, brushing his hair out of his face..

"So it _is _possible?" Marwan said, his eye s widened slightly in shock. "We can bring them all back?" This included, of course, his wife and kids.

"Hold on a second, how can we even trust this guy? He sounds like some delirious outcast to me." Dilara argued, even if the idea of bringing everyone back was very tempting.

"Do you have trust-issues or something?" Liwei said dryly, earning him a glare from here.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I dunno, you just said the exact same thing about War, that's all."

"War?" Rose repeated, puzzled by the conversation as she sat down on the arm of the couch. "What are you talking about?"

Leonard sighed, and decided to explain their entire encounter with the Horseman while the others stayed silent, and that included the notion of possibly aiding him in his quest.

"I'm in." Rose decided first, naturally. She wasn't named the "Avenger" for nothing. Dilara sighed as she realized she'd probably be the only one against helping him.

"Hold on, why don't we go with Gabriel's plan first?" Marwan said with a slight frown. "If we had more people, it would be safer to plan an attack." That, and the possibility of seeing his family again probably made him impatient.

"_Or _we could do both." Leo proposed, and all eyes were on him.

"What? Woah, slow down!" Dilara exclaimed, irritated at where the conversation was going. "We're just going to risk our lives to go on what could very well be a wild goose chase? Look, I trust Gabriel on his info, but the Horseman–"

"Are you racist against Horsemen? Is that what's going on? You don't like horses?"

"Shut up Liwei!"

"Touchy, touchy."

"Enough." Leo raised his voice with a deep frown. "We all agree Gabriel's plan is a good one, but we'll have to hear the details later. As for aiding the Horseman – Dilara, I understand your concern, but we could at least _try_. I'm not planning to wait until the demons launch a massive attack on our base only to die like a coward in the end. Besides, we won't _all _go. The most we could spare would be two of us." Dilara pursed her lips, but didn't say anything else under Leo's sharp gaze. She slowly nodded her head, realizing she was really outnumbered on this one.

"Well then, Gabriel, would you like to elaborate on this scheme of yours?" Vivian spoke up in her soft voice, breaking the tension. The angel nodded once.

"There is no guarantee this would work, but it's the best shot you have. You'd have to start with the Tree of Life, of course. The Tree links all other realms in existence together, and contains the gate to the Well of Souls, which holds the power over life and death and wherein lies all the souls of the dead. There, in theory, you should be able to resurrect the billions who have died." He paused for a moment. "I cannot, unfortunately, create a portal straight to the Tree. Raziel informed me that it was suffering from Corruption. You'd have to take care of that first."

"That's all? I was starting to think it would be easy." Vivian remarked softly, a mild tone of sarcasm in her voice.

"Corruption? What, someone bribed the Tree with money?" Rose added to that sarcasm, and Liwei rolled his eyes.

"And people say _my _jokes are bad."

"Nothing of the sort." Gabriel replied to Rose, ignoring the other two. "It has been spreading for a long time now, and I'm afraid it may destroy everything."

"But what _is _it?" the Avenger spoke, still not understanding what the angel was talking about.

"I suppose you could call it a disease. If you're not careful it might take you as well, and it keeps spreading, even as we speak. You _can _fight it for a while, but until you pull out its root, you cannot stop it; not permanently, anyhow."

"That sounds very unpleasant."

"I can open a portal to one of the realms, but you'll have to carve your way to the Tree yourself." Gabriel continued. "I cannot leave Earth; as you know, I am primarily bound to Zalmir." Of course, he'd been quite literally Zalmir's guardian angel ever since he'd given him the trumpet. He could not afford to leave to another planet entirely and leave the Prophet out here alone. He was also bound to the rest of them, but to a lesser degree. There was quite a long silence as everyone thought of what to do. They seemed to all agree it was worth a shot, but who would actually go and who would stay behind? This wasn't a small undertaking; whoever went was going to an entirely different _realm_. To say it was dangerous would be an understatement, it basically sounded like a suicide mission.

"I'll do it." Leo eventually said with a nod. "I've gone on reckless missions before in the past. At least this time it'll be quite the experience."

"Are you certain? You might not come back from this one." Gabriel said gravely. Leo chuckled.

"I'm not sure whether that's such a bad thing." he murmured, putting a hand through his hair. "Besides, I'd have the best chance of survival." he added, referring to his sensing abilities.

"I'll accompany you." Vivian said unexpectedly.

"No, Vi, stay here." Leo immediately protested. "We have no idea what's out there, and you'd do more good here."

"Nonsense." the woman replied dismissively. "You need a long-ranged partner, or you'd get overwhelmed by enemies pretty fast, considering you're the type to jump headfirst into things." Leo scowled, seeing that there was no convincing the stubborn woman otherwise.

"Two is all we can spare." Gabriel spoke. "That is, if you still want to aid the Horseman as well."

"We could try." Liwei said with a shrug.

"I recall he was pretty set on refusing our aid, though." Vivian responded.

"I'll go and convince him." Rose said decidedly, the chains from her blades clipped to her belt rattling slightly as she sat down on the armchair of the couch. The chains were attached to the handles of her curved, silver blades, so if she wished she could use it up-close, or use the chains for a ranged effect. It was ingenious, but it had taken her several years to master it with a _lot _of accidentally self-inflicted wounds in the process.

Liwei skeptically raised an eyebrow at her.

"How would you do that? Even Vivian's gift didn't work on him."

"Stalk him until he gets tired."

Liwei chuckled at that, though most of them weren't that amused.

"I should go with you, in case things go wrong." Gabriel said to her. "Dilara and Liwei, in any case, should stay and guard the camp."

"I'm fine with that." Dilara huffed, evidently not happy with the idea of trying to help the one who started everything in the first place.

"Yup, I'd probably be of more use here." Liwei agreed. They decided to let Gabriel rest, and tomorrow they would each leave to do start their mission or stay behind. In Dilara's case, she wasn't happy at all with how things had gone and she seemed to be the only one. Marwan noticed her frowning as she left the living room, going outside through the front door. The Healer sighed before following the troubled youth. Most of the others decided to chitchat some more inside, and while some of them noticed Dilara's grumpy attitude, they left it up to Marwan to possibly sort it out. He saw the young woman sitting on the small steps in front of his door, and silently sat down beside her.

"What's bothering you?" he asked softly. Dilara hung her head low, glaring down at her dirty boots.

"We shouldn't be risking it all on this one guy." she mumbled, her elbows on her knees as she leaned her head onto her hands.

"You know it's the best shot we–"

"I know!" she interrupted, snarling at Marwan, who frowned slightly; taken aback by the defensive attitude.

"Are you sure this is about the Horseman?" he asked carefully, becoming worried. She wasn't this tense and aggressive usually. Dilara bit her lip, glancing up at Marwan.

"This is the part where I tell you some sort of sob story, right? Something like, my parents died in a horrific accident or whatever?" She let out a humorless, soft chuckle. "It's nothing like that. I just… what if this kills them? Rose and Gabe? For what would they've died? Some stupid quest for vengeance? At least I know Vi and Leo aren't doing this for… for revenge. They wouldn't get carried away."

"This isn't just for vengeance. It's a strategic move." Marwan replied calmly, but that did not take away the concern evident in Dilara's eyes.

"Well, here's my sob story then. You know I was there when… when Yonis and the others died." Marwan looked away, remembering all too well the day that had happened. It had been a regular hunting trip for supplies and food; then the demons had attacked. They'd lost ten people in a matter of minutes, Dilara and two others only barely escaping with their lives hanging on a thread. It had been a long time ago, and Marwan had figured he was the only one who'd still think about that day but apparently he was not alone.

"What of it?" he asked wearily.

"They didn't have to get killed. Yonis could've… he could've escaped. But he was so angry, for his sister. She'd only been killed just a few weeks ago, and he just charged at the demons without a second thought, and I _saw _him, Marwan." Dilara took a deep breath. "He got slaughtered." she muttered. The Healer had a completely blank face, but a stinging pain in his chest that wasn't visible to the outside.

"Gabriel wouldn't–"

"I know Gabe wouldn't." Dilara cut in. "But Rosanne would. That's just who she _is_, Marwan. You've seen her fight before, it's not… it's not human. She loses all sense of self. What if she gets too fired up?"

"Gabriel wouldn't let that happen, and Rose has always managed to survive. There's no way she'd let herself get killed now, _especially _since this is a quest for revenge for her." Marwan tried reassuring her, but Dilara shook her head.

"I still don't think it's worth it." she replied glumly. "I've seen too many people die, Healer. I'm not strong like the rest of you, there's only so much I can take. If I lost _any _of you now, I'm not sure I could remain sane." Marwan put an arm around her shoulders.

"Hey, it's going to be just fine." he tried comforting her, but couldn't wipe away the depressed look in those hazel eyes. She reminded him of his daughter, at times. Both were very sensitive to violence, and thoughtful of others. "They won't let those bastards get to them. Not Rose, not Gabe, not the others either. They'll succeed. Just have faith." Dilara tried smiling, though it quickly fell from her face as she gazed up at the sky. Marwan sighed, realizing there was nothing he could say now to take her doubts away.

"Let's just get inside." Dilara eventually mumbled, standing up as Marwan pulled his arm away. "I think it might rain tonight."

* * *

The morning came too soon, as it always did. Before they knew it, it was time to get out of bed and start the new day; whatever horrors it might hold. Vivian and Leonard seemed ready enough to leave on a mission that could very well be the end of them. Vivian had loaded up as much arrows as she could, and Rose handed her a long, curved dagger.

"But this is your favorite." Vivian said surprised as she studied the golden blade with the bronze handle, the light glinting on its smooth surface. Rose shrugged, trying to brush it off as a triviality while the dagger, in fact, was _really _her favorite weapon. She didn't use it often, but it had never once failed her in battle before.

"I can always find a better one." she lied, and Vivian smiled at her.

"Of course. Thank you." She sheathed the dagger and clipped it to her belt, feeling like it might come in handy if her arrows ever failed her. Rose cast one last look at the familiar blade, then tore her gaze away and nodded once at the red-head, wishing her luck on her journey. Dilara then walked up to her and gave her a firm hug.

"Don't die on us, okay?" she spoke, evidently worried.

"I wouldn't dare." Vivian reassured her soothingly. Dilara then turned to Leo and gave him a hug too, though he was much more uncomfortable.

"Yeah, yeah, we'll be back before you know it." he said as he awkwardly patted her back. Liwei also decided to give Vivian a hug, his hands on her lower back–

"_Don't._" Vivian spoke very clearly when Liwei's hand started to travel down more, and the young man gulped, pulling away with an apologetic grin.

"Hey, if this is the last time I'm gonna see you, can you blame me if I just want to cop a… okay, I'll shut up now." he mumbled, looking away from Vivian's piercing gaze. Leo laughed, slapping Liwei firmly on the back.

"Better luck next time, kid." he said teasingly.

"Whatever, grandpa." Liwei sneered, sticking out his tongue like a child. Dilara rolled her eyes at them as Vivian also said goodbye to Marwan and Zalmir.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Zalmir said, concerned for her. Vivian sighed.

"You just sit back and sleep some more, old man. The two of us will save the world for you." Zalmir smiled mildly, and Vivian turned to Leo, who'd already said goodbye to the others by then. Gabriel was waiting outside. He looked up when they came down the steps, followed by the others.

"You're ready to leave?" he said, and the two of them nodded without hesitation. The angel, however, seemed less comfortable as they approached him. "If I could go in your stead, I would. But as it is–"

"It's fine, Gabriel. It's only fitting we should be the ones to do this." Leonard told him, though he still didn't seem pleased.

"If anything should happen to you, I will have failed my duty as your guardian."

"You've given us a fighting chance. That's more than enough." He didn't respond to Leo's remark and instead turned away, raising a hand in front of him and whispering something in a foreign language. A sudden black hole opened up right next to him, blue runes spinning around it as it gave off a dark blue light. They all watched it for a moment longer, when the blackness of the portal turned to show a wide landscape with large mountains and plenty of green, rivers meandering around a forest and most of all – a large tree in the distance, its branches at the top giving off a light blue radiance.

"Is that where we'll be going?" Leo asked as he stared inside the portal in awe. Gabriel nodded.

"Looks pretty." Liwei said, raising his eyebrows. "Almost like a vacation."

"I assure you it will be nothing like that." the Archangel said bleakly.

"You know, you really _are _a killjoy."

"Well, I suppose it's time to go then, isn't it?" Vivian spoke up, interrupting them. Leo nodded once, and glanced at Liwei. He definitely was going to miss the kid's humor. Hell, he was going to miss every one of them. It was hard not to bond when you were stuck with the same people for a whole century. "I do _so _appreciate your faith in us, Gabriel." Vivian suddenly said, her voice laced with heavy sarcasm for once instead of the double-meaning she usually did.

"I can't help it." the angel admitted, not bothering to hiding his sour expression anymore. Vivian leaned over to him, and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.

"Hey, what the hell? He get a kiss, but I don't even get to cop a feel?!" Liwei protested with a deep frown, though he was ignored. Gabriel, for once, was entirely flustered by the sudden gesture.

"Cheer up." she said with a smile. She looked at the others for one last time, before smoothly turning her back on them and without hesitation stepping through the portal, disappearing into the landscape. Leo blinked twice, before sighing.

"Well, I guess I should go as well, then. Take care, guys." he said with a small wave, and followed in Vivian's footsteps. Once he too was gone, the portal swirled and disappeared entirely. There was a silence as the others couldn't help but worry for them either way, though they all had a different way of showing it.

"Alright, enough standing around." Rose spoke decisively, determined not to dwell on this too long and just have faith that the two of them would make it. She turned to Gabriel, who had his hand on his cheek, lost in deep contemplation, and smirked at him. "Let's go, fairy-wings. The Horseman is waiting for us."

* * *

One half-hour later and Gabriel had a blade against his throat.

"You're not a very friendly guy, are you?" Rosanne remarked dryly as she stared at the Horseman, who didn't seem to happy with being tracked down by them. It had taken a long time to find him, and like Liwei had described, he wasn't very approachable, or, well, had a "crappy attitude". Eventually they'd ended up in what was now called the Scalding Gallow. Rose was standing a few feet away, while Gabriel was simply standing in front of War, completely calm as if he _didn't _have a giant blade threatening to slice his head right off.

"It wouldn't be wise to attack a potential ally, Horseman." Gabriel spoke composed as Rose watched, her hands hovering near the handles of her blades in case things did go wrong. "I don't believe we've met before; my name is Gabriel." War narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I've heard of you." he spoke slowly.

"Of course you have." Gabriel said with a somewhat contented smile. "And I've heard of you. As I recall you caused quite the commotion in the White City a few centuries back."

"On the Council's orders." War said with a mild scowl.

"I wasn't disputing that." Gabriel responded coolly.

"Can we get to the point?" Rose cut in impatiently, not caring to whatever past they were alluding to. War looked at her, glancing once at the blades on her belt.

"I already rejected your offer." He sheathed his blade, but the two of them weren't going to give up so easily.

"Then reconsider." Rose responded with a frown. "We won't get in the way, and with Gabe here you might get less shit from the angels hunting you. We want the same thing, right? Kill the guy who's actually responsible? It's a win-win." The Horseman simply glared at her, then turned his back on them.

"No." he said clearly and started walking away, when the demons decided to show up. He was forced to stop and pull his blade out again. Rose grabbed her own two blades as well, and Gabriel unsheathed his long, slim sword with its blade embedded with golden runes and attached to a golden handle. There were about a dozen of them at first, though more showed up once the first few fell. Rose didn't use the chains yet as she only used it when she was surrounded by enemies or they were a few feet away. She cut them down rather brutishly, while Gabriel on the other hand moved very smoothly in between the demons, dodging every blow with ease, cutting the monsters down with the quickest movements. In the battle, the two of them made eye-contact, and Rose nodded towards the Horseman, who was dealing with a much larger (and fatter) demon. Gabriel smiled knowingly, and seemed to have a plan. When most of the foot soldiers had been taken care of, Gabriel turned towards the Horseman who was still busy with the bigger demon.

"Horseman!" he yelled in an alarmed voice, and War quickly looked over to him, expecting to see something important. Instead, Gabriel asked, slowly, "Do you require some assistance with that brute?"

War looked like he wanted to rip his head right off when the brute in question used this momentary distraction to attempt to crush the Horseman with its large claws. Rose quickly swung one chain, swinging it around like a lasso for some momentum and threw it forward, her muscles flexing as the blade shot like an arrow towards the brute and cut its arm right off, hindering it from landing a blow on War, even though it wouldn't have done that much damage, hell, he could've probably blocked it with some effort. The Horseman quickly finished the job and soon enough, the large demon's head was rolling over the floor. Rose smirked widely as she pulled her blade back.

"Would you look at that? You owe me." she said, sheathing her blade again as she was being glared at, when suddenly – out of a black smoke, the strangest creature she'd yet seen appeared at War's side.

"Now _that_ was a dirty trick." it spoke in an unnerving voice. Gabriel seemed completely unperturbed. Rose not so much.

"What the hell is that?!" she exclaimed as she gazed at the thing, who seemed offended.

"That is a Sprite. It serves the Charred Council." Gabriel responded coolly before the creature could sneer anything at her. "I see. You seemed weaker than I expected, but now it makes sense. The Council has you on a leash. All the more reason to accept our offer." Rose kept staring at the Sprite, looking it over from head to… toe, so to speak.

"We've already rejected your offer. Take a hint and leave, will you?" the Sprite spoke, glaring at Rose the entire time.

"_We_? Does it make speak for you now as well, Horseman?" Gabriel said, raising his eyebrows. War glanced at the Sprite floating by his side.

"Why do you have so many eyes? Are you some sort of overgrown insect?" Rose suddenly blurted out as she stared at the Sprite with a fascinated gaze. Both Gabriel and War stared at her as the Sprite fumed.

"Who do you think you're talking to, you disgusting mouth-breather!" it snarled at her.

"What? I don't breathe with my mouth. Why would I breathe with my mouth?" she said confused at the odd insult. "Are you just jealous because you don't have one?" Gabriel simply blinked befuddled at this random conversation and War had the slightest hint of amusement on his face while the Sprite was completely irritated.

"Horseman, time to _leave_." it spoke angrily. This, of course, made War think twice about the offer. He certainly knew Gabriel could only be a great ally to have, and the woman seemed capable enough, as long as she didn't get in his way. Besides, anything that might infuriate the Watcher was at the very least something entertaining to look at.

"I suppose," the Horseman said slowly, "I do owe you a debt."

"What? What are you talking about?!" the Sprite snapped, as Rose smirked widely and Gabriel smiled contently. "You don't owe them anything! You could've easily blocked that attack!"

"We won't get in the way, and I'm sure we'll be a great help in your quest. You _do _want to succeed, don't you?" Gabriel questioned the Watcher, folding his arms.

"Fine!" the Sprite gave in angrily, and turned to the Horseman. "But the minute they become a burden, _get rid of them_." With that last hiss, he vanished into the black smoke he'd came from. War shot the two companions just one glance after that, and started walking away. This time, they followed him, and no protests were made.

They could only wonder how the others were doing in their own journey – in a faraway realm, that could potentially be their end.


	4. A Realm Beyond

_Wow, just wow. I _really _did not expect that many responses. I'm just completely shocked, and also very happy!_

_Big thanks to __**Shadow fang the black wolf, Azrael, ColinatorGX, Twisted Unicorns, Silver Peak, X-x-Moon-X-Glows-x-X , Devil Rebel, Jarl of the North, Mistress of Destruction**__ and __**kitten2437**__!_

_Thank you guys so much for the awesome responses so far, I'll keep doing my best and I hope you'll be pleased with this next installment! _

_Also thanks to everyone who is following or fave'd the story; even if you didn't review, I'm still glad you enjoyed it!_

_Anyway, before you decide to skip ahead and read the good stuff already, I'll warn you not to expect any instant craziness and whatnot. It's more an introductory chapter to the second storyline than anything else, really._

_So I hope you'll enjoy it enough to review again and let me know how I did and what I can improve on!_

_-Kiss  
_

* * *

Chapter IV  
_A Realm Beyond_

No words in their vocabulary could, from what they felt, quite adequately describe the landscape in front of them – or more specifically; the impossibly large tree in the distance. It towered above anything else in their view, reaching towards the grey sky as a faint, blue illumination seemed to escape through its countless branches, the leafs themselves, so perfectly packed together, were making it seem like the ancient tree was surrounded in a large, dark cloud. No doubt, that tree _had _to be their destination, the Tree of Life. Yet, aside from the light, it didn't seem very lively. It could be just the distance, but everything _around _the tree – the mountains, the forest – seemed so much greener and more alive. It almost looked like the Tree was withering away, in a sense. As for the rest of the landscape, it was a rough one, with far too many trees and high mountains for either Leonard or Vivian to quite make out what else there was in this foreign world aside from the woods and the mountains surrounding them.

"Well, this is very, er, different." Leo noted, still somewhat disoriented from the trip through the portal as he stood up from the ground, brushing off dirt and dust on his clothes. Both of them had rather roughly landed on what seemed to be a road on an incredibly wide field, near a round gate on a small hill. The valley itself was mostly empty, a few trees scattered about here and there, but nothing much to see otherwise.

Then, the two of them finally noticed the monstrosity several feet _in front of them_. Why they had not noticed before was, to say the least, baffling considering how prominent the thing was.

It could in the simplest terms be described as a one-eyed, black-skinned monster; a giant, disgusting blemish staining the otherwise perfectly tranquil and green pasture. It had a giant eye in the middle of what could be called its "head", the sclera of it a sickly yellow color as its black pupil surveyed the area around it. Its "body" consisted of what seemed to be black tentacle-like things wrapped around its direct environment. Giant abomination aside, it was more notably blocking the path toward the Tree of Life.

"_Very_ different." Vivian agreed quietly with Leo's previous statement as she too gazed at the thing which seemed to be too close for comfort. Its yellow eye was preoccupied with gazing across the landscape, almost as if it were searching for something, when it suddenly shifted towards their direction and stared right at them. Leo held his breath and Vivian immediately took a few steps back, her hands instantly reaching for her long, dark bow which she usually kept on her back. It was made out of different materials to optimize its range and damage – and of course, a few light blue runes on its arms to make it a lot more durable than your average bow.

"Is it staring at us?" Leo asked in a hushed tone, not quite certain considering the thing was quite a distance away.

"Why don't you go over there and ask it? I'm sure it's quite friendly." Vivian suggested wryly, and her partner rolled his eyes as he came up with a cliché retort.

"Ladies first." Of course, it was quickly shot down.

"Well then, you should get going." Leo sighed, defeated.

"Tell me, do you get a kick out of being unbearably sarcastic?" her companion asked annoyed at her pestering, and settled on glaring at her. Vivian merely smiled, the faintest hint of an amused look in her eyes as she replied.

"I don't know. Do you get a kick out of asking redundant questions?" The man gave up and instead looked at the monstrosity again.

The giant eyeball hadn't really reacted to seeing them. It merely stared for a few more seconds before going back to gazing over the large valley, having decided such puny little creatures formed no threat to its existence.

Leo decided to then study their surroundings as the monster did not seem to have an intention of attacking them – if that were even possible at such a distance. Vivian, meanwhile, grabbed Leo's small bag which he carried over his shoulder. He didn't even notice as he was much too occupied with trying to get a sense of direction, and his "sixth sense" was quite overwhelmed by the new and foreign presences in the vicinity.

His gift was probably the most useful out of all seven of them. He could sense every soul nearby, and if he closed his eyes, even _see_ them, in a way. Humans were always a colorful or diverse array of light – you could say they had widely different auras. Vivian, for example, had a cool, light blue aura bordering on white, and Leonard's himself was silver. Their auras were the more colorless ones, and for some reason Leo always had more difficulty sensing Vivian – or Zalmir, with his light green soul – because of the general lack of color and energy they gave off. He supposed they were by and large very calm people, or otherwise not that emotional. In contrast to that, Rosanne, Liwei and Dilara had more intense colors – those three were, naturally, more emotional or vigorous. Marwan's was exactly in between; not too radiant, nor too colorless either.

Most "regular" humans didn't shine as bright; half the time they were overpowered by the stronger souls in the surrounding area. Nonetheless, everyone had their own colors. The reason for this diversity, Leonard supposed, was because unlike demons or angels or any other supernatural being, humans (with some exceptions) were not "special" in that way nor did they have extraordinary powers that determined and sometimes even overpowered their entire personality.

From what he'd seen of demons, they all seemed to be one huge population of the most malicious, cruel and unbearable sacks of shit one could gather and throw into the deepest possible pit in the universe. They generally had very dark colored souls, as most of them tended to be something like a dark grey or dark red. He'd yet to see one who had a pure black one, and he wasn't looking forward to it either. The dark grey ones usually turned out to be the strongest in a group – a pure black one would probably tear them to shreds.

From what Gabriel told him about angels, they mostly seemed to be the most boring, overbearing, stick-up-the-ass douchebags one could find and put on some sanctimonious throne to stare down disdainfully at others and judge the "lesser" creatures. Their souls were mostly white, but also shined much brighter than those of humans. One angel who had a touch of color, though, was Gabriel, whose soul had a somewhat glistening blue hue, just like his wings. His had also shined brighter than any other angel he'd ever seen, and that was probably because he was an Archangel. There was also another one, a female who'd also had a somewhat golden color to her, whose radiance came very close to Gabriel's. Uriel, was it? He'd seen her every now and then the past hundred years, but had never bothered to strike up a conversation. Frankly she reminded him of his mother, albeit a younger looking and more attractive version, and suffice to say he was intimidated.

Then, there was that Horseman. Shades of glowing red with tinges of bright orange and white sparks, even hints of blue at times which would disappear just as quickly as they'd appeared. If shaped differently it could've easily passed for an all-consuming flame. Leo had never seen so many different colors come together into just _one _soul, and had never felt so much heated energy coming off of _one _person. This had made him wonder, what _were _the Four Horsemen? They'd have to have some sort of species, didn't they?

But right now, he was getting much too distracted by the most unfamiliar sensation he'd ever felt, almost overwhelming all his other senses. Quite the same when he'd first seen the Horseman, actually. He closed his eyes in an attempt to get a better picture of the eerily menacing aura of the large eyeball monster.

"Leonard, what are you sensing?" he heard Vivian's soft voice ask him inquisitively, and he could feel her calming light blue aura nearing him, standing right by his side. But, he was not focused on her at the moment. He tried to define the presence. It was odd. A strange, completely black speck, much like that of a demon – however, there was one prominent difference. It didn't _feel _alive, not exactly, not the kind of liveliness you'd see in a human or even an animal. It didn't feel like it was that of a conscious individual either; it felt more like it was connected to something bigger.

"I don't know, but it's not good." Leo responded, opening his eyes again as he became accustomed to the new presence, staring at the monstrosity which was peacefully looking around. Whatever it was, it was part of one bigger whole. He vaguely wondered if this was the "Corruption" Gabriel had spoken of. He glanced at his companion who was eying him curiously, and shook his head. "Let's just get out of here, wherever here is." She nodded once, opening the small, dark green backpack Leo had brought along. From it she pulled a folded, hand-drawn map, quickly opening it and skimming over the contents.

"Look for a landmark." she ordered, somehow still managing to sound polite, as she studied the map some more. Leo was used to her ordering everyone around by now, and so obeyed, though mostly because it was the logical thing to do. He noticed ridiculously large statues not far from their location in the direction of the round gate nearby, though in the opposite direction of the Tree of Life. They were surrounding what seemed to be a huge, odd looking mountain. Because of the distance he couldn't see much details on the dark grey, stone statues, but he didn't really need to in order to be in awe of them. Suffice to say he gazed in wonder for a while before he regained his senses again.

"Right there." Leo spoke up, pointing to the constructs, admiring the view. Vivian glanced at him, followed the direction he was pointing in and instead of staring like he'd done, she merely blinked once, looked it over for a second time, and returned to gazing at her map.

"That would be Tri-Stone." she informed him calmly. "Then this place is… Stonefather's Vale. They really do like their stones, don't they?" Vivian mused as she put the map Gabriel had drawn for them in the bag again and handed it to Leo, who swiftly hung it over his shoulder again. The map seemed to lack a _lot _of detail, but the most important landmarks and locations were there so it was sufficient.

"In any case, let's get moving to Tri-Stone then. There's bound to be someone – or something – there that could help us out with the eyeball blocking the way." Leo decided.

"I wonder what they look like." Vivian murmured, mostly to herself as the two of them turned their backs on the giant monster blocking the path of their destination and walked through the round gate, large walls on either side, making Leonard feel rather cramped. He did not like narrow spaces; unpleasant childhood memories of being trapped in a cave for several days had traumatized him and he'd do anything to avoid small spaces.

They ended up at the edge of a cliff that lead to what seemed to be a rather deep lake. The whole place looked like someone had decided to go on a rampage. The tiles on the ground were completely shattered and broken, largely missing in most parts, and wildlife was flourishing around the area, indicating that the passage hadn't been used for quite a while. The water itself seemed clean enough, though still somewhat murky.

"I guess we'll have to swim." Leo said with a displeased frown.

"Fine, but you go first, in case there's any man-eating fish." Vivian said dryly, and he gazed at her, his scowl deepening. "What? You'd do a better job in handling them than I would." she replied to his stare with a shrug. Leo just sighed, and jumped in head first. He carefully opened his eyes underwater, and saw several plants on the bottom and some ruins of whatever had used to be there before the water overtook it.

'_Nope, no piranhas here.' _ He came up for air a few seconds later and looked up at Vivian who was staring down with a somewhat bored expression on her face.

"It's safe." She nodded once, taking off her leather, red-colored belt quiver filled with arrows, and tossed it down to Leonard to keep them dry and keep them from floating away in the water. He caught it with one hand, and she dived into the water, quickly coming up for air a second later. She took her belt quiver back from him, holding it above the water as they swam across the lake. When they finally reached the end, they realized they couldn't get up to the other end as the ledge was too high, so they'd have to find another way to cross the lake. Leo luckily found a few wooden ledges on the cliff wall leading up to dry ground higher up. He climbed up with some effort and somewhat slowly, wondering who the hell had conveniently put those things there. Vivian had a much easier time climbing, as she was lighter and a lot more agile than Leo was. They both walked to the edge on the cliff, staring down at the ground.

"So now we jump down?" she asked unsurely, being uncomfortable with heights as she gazed down. Their clothes were drenched, but it wasn't much of a bother. Leo, without any fuss, let himself drop down from the ledge, carefully landing on his feet. The impact shocked him for a moment, but he was fine otherwise. Vivian reluctantly followed his example, an anxious look in her eyes, though she stumbled and nearly fell on the ground had Leo not grabbed her arm and balanced her.

"Someone really messed this place up good." he remarked casually as he stared around at the broken tiles on the ground and wild plants growing everywhere.

"That was awful." Vivian said discontented, as she pulled her wet hair up in a ponytail, generally unhappy when forced to jump off high things. "Let's not do that again."

"I'm afraid we won't have much of a choice if we want to get to the Tree." Leo responded, pointing at a wall across from them which lead up to another cliff – another shortcut to going around the water. Vivian sighed annoyed, and they started walking once again, ending up at another round gate, which was _closed_.

"Well that's just typical, isn't it?"

"Damn," Leo huffed grumpily, walking up to the gate and started knocking on it. Or more like, pounding on it with his fist, since it was pure hard stone. "Hello? Anyone home?" he called out as Vivian stayed back and watched him. There was no response for a moment. "Hey! Anybody there? Can someone open this gate?" When there was still no response, Leo frowned and tried to sense. Yes, there definitely was at least one person there. A very… large person, at that. But from the warm, orange colored aura Leo supposed it wasn't a demon, at least. A few moments more of silence, when loud footsteps were heard, and Leo felt the presence nearing them. Vivian's hand instinctively reached for the large bow on her back and an arrow. Leo took a step back when the gate suddenly started moving, rolling to the side only to reveal a very large man.

Vivian took up her dark brown bow and immediately snatched an arrow from her belt quiver, nocked an arrow, swiftly raising her bow and drawing it with one fluid motion, and then aiming it at the giant man. Leo just stared up at him, shocked to have found someone taller than him. True, the aura had been quite large, but he figured it had just been a particularly strong aura of a somewhat large person, not… not actually that of a damn giant.

"Maker's beard!" the giant called out perplexed in his deep, rough voice, looking down at Leo. "Humans! In the Forge Lands, no less!" Vivian and Leo glanced at each other, and he nodded at her, triggering her to slowly lower her bow but not put it away entirely. She decided to take the word as all Leo seemed to be thinking from the expression on his face was something along the lines of, '_Holy crap'_. True, they'd seen a lot of things in the past hundred years – giant men wasn't among them. At most, giant demons.

"You're quite right; we're humans and we've come here for a very important cause. Perhaps you could help us with that?" she requested politely. The giant stared at her now.

"What I'd like to know first is how you came here, missy. I didn't think humans could to travel through realms." he responded to her, his strong voice resonating through the area.

"We can't. An angel helped us out." Vivian answered him plainly, but then seemed to remember something. "Do forgive me for my lack of manners. My name is Vivian, and my companion here is called Leonard." she introduced them formally. The giant snorted a laugh, and only then did Leo noticed the _giant freaking axe_ the man carried.

'_And here I thought I was the only one with a thing for big weapons.' _he thought to himself as he gazed at the axe.

"Polite bunch, aren't ya? The name's Thane. Now what business did you lot have in the Forge Lands?" he questioned.

"We need to get to the Tree of Life." Leo answered this time, finally tearing his gaze away from Thane's axe.

"Go talk to the Elder about that, tho' I reckon either way it won't be easy for you to get there."

"The Elder?"

"He's right through there." Thane pointed to the left, to a small road through a hollowed out tree trunk lying on it. "And don't go causing any trouble." he added as a warning.

"Thank you." Vivian said with a slight nod, and the large man let them pass, though he kept a close eye on them.

"Ha! The Elder is gonna be in for a surprise!" Leo managed to catch Thane saying to himself as he closed the gate again behind them. Vivian glanced at her partner who simply grinned as they walked away towards the path the giant had pointed at.

"I like that guy."

"Of course you like him. He has a giant axe like you and also a funny accent."

"Hey," Leo said, mock-offended by the remark as they walked down the steps, "I'm not that shallow. I like his beard too, ya know."

"Oh, forgive me. His axe, his accent _and _his beard." Leo rolled his eyes at the derisive sneer. "Hmm. Look at that." she suddenly said, staring to the side. Leo followed her gaze and felt his eyes were gonna drop out of its sockets when he saw the two ridiculously large statues nearby, on either side of the gate they'd just walked through. Now _that _was certainly an amazing sight from up close. They were the buildings of warriors, clad in large armor, holding giant weapons. Even on the door right across them there was the head of a bearded man carved into stone, right above the door and surrounding it. Had it not been so impressively made, one would call it comical. Right above that was the odd mountain they'd seen from the distance. On the left there was a round, giant ornament with a red symbol that looked like a flame on top of the large pillars supporting it. On the right there was the exact same thing, except the symbol was blue and had the shape of a tear.

"They seem to have a knack for building things." Leo said in spite of his initial astonishment and Vivian nodded slowly, impressed by the architecture. They continued and walked through the moss-covered tree trunk, following a long path that lead to an area surrounded by stone walls and seemed pretty closed off. There too were some ruins of relatively smaller statues, but more importantly, there they found the old, large man whom they presumed to be the Elder Thane had spoken of.

However, he was not alone. There was someone lying on the ground, which the Elder was leaning over. When the two of them had walked into the area, however, he'd turned around to face them. Like Thane, he was surprised, but his response was a lot more eloquent and calm.

"Humans? You are the last creatures I expected to see in the Forge Lands." he spoke composedly at first, then coughing for a moment. Didn't seem too healthy. Vivian and Leo exchanged glances.

"Yes, well, the feeling is mutual." Vivian responded vaguely. She momentarily glanced at the unconscious person lying on the ground, then looked at Leo who immediately understood what she was asking him to do without needing any words. He started his sensing once again, closing his eyes for a moment.

"I did not know humans had the means to travel through realms."

"We don't, actually. An angel aided us." Vivian replied, while Leo scowled deeply at what he was sensing. The aura of the Elder was a very light, beige color, and very radiant. That of the person lying next to him however, was an entirely different matter. In fact, it was so confusing it started giving him a headache. It was a deep purple color, surrounded by numerous blots of green and sparks of white. It reminded him of War's aura, except these countless blots of green – most of them inside the purple soul – were entirely separate souls. Leo blinked a few times, opening his eyes and wondering how the hell this was even _possible. _He closed his eyes again, attempting to define it All that did, however, was make the light headache worse.

"What is so important that it might bring you to this dying world?" the Elder questioned. Vivian glanced at Leo, who seemed fixated on the person lying on the ground, before she answered. Or, tried to before she was cut off by something else.

"We need to get to the Tree of Life as soon as–"

A groan interrupted her. The purple soul Leo saw with his "Mind's Eye", as Gabriel had dubbed it, flickered, before its radiance increased. It now had several shades of purple, seeming to be more lively but still stable, and the green souls surrounding it shimmered unsteadily. The Elder turned to the person lying on the ground, and the two companions took a closer look at him, though they stayed at a careful distance. The skin on his exposed torso had an odd, dull grey color, almost that of a corpse. He had a wiry frame with shoulder-length black hair and wore a rather menacing mask – but the odd, glowing shards in his chest were more interesting, at least to Leo. They seemed to be the green souls he'd sensed, and this completely bemused him. Why and _how _was this possible?

"Be still, Horseman. You are wounded." the Elder advised the man, reaching over with one large finger – and disturbingly long nail – to lightly tap the green shards in his chest which reacted by emitting an odd, green smoke in turn. But neither of the humans particularly cared about that little spectacle since there was something more important that called for their attention.

Vivian and Leo looked at each other in astonishment as the exact same thought crossed their minds.

'_A Horseman?'_

The man in question leapt to his feet immediately, disturbed by the light touch of the Elder, and took a defensive stance – burning orange eyes gleaming at him through the bone-white mask.

"Don't touch me!" the Horseman hissed. The Elder promptly ignored this and turned his back on him, walking over to the large, grey statue nearby as with every step his staff tapped on the ground. He gazed up at the statue contemplatively while stroking his beard.

"Your arrival here is a bad omen. Yes, troubles me greatly." the Elder murmured. Vivian, at this point, merely folded her arms and seemed to be completely comfortable watching the conversation while Leo was unsure what to do at this point. He was wondering whether to speak up or not.

"Old one, there's more trouble ahead if don't–" The Horseman stopped mid-sentence when noticing the other two present in the area. Leo blinked once, feeling nervous, while Vivian simply stood there and stared with an apathetic expression on her face as if what was happening _didn't _concern her whatsoever. Her lax attitude would've made Leo pull his hair out at any other moment, were it not that he was being stared at by blazing orange eyes. Vivian finally looked up.

"Hello." she greeted him plainly. Leo gazed at her as if she were a crazy person (which was actually pretty plausible). Sure, her calm manner was appreciated in ridiculous situations, but this was just _too _calm for his liking. Then again, she tended to underestimate certain situations often enough – or maybe this was just one of her façades. He could rarely tell the difference between her pretending and being genuine.

"Humans?" he muttered, understandably puzzled like the two others before him.

"Yes, humans." she confirmed evenly as she looked unblinkingly at the man.

"They came here in search of a way to reach the Tree of Life." the Elder said, turning to the Horseman again, whose eyes narrowed slightly.

"What business would humans have with the Tree?" he questioned, though in a tone that he suggested he already knew. This, of course, was odd to the two companions. Vivian frowned for a moment, and this time Leo answered.

"Restoring our people." The Horseman seemed unsurprised, and the Elder coughed briefly before speaking.

"The Tree holds power over life and death. If you would resurrect all who have perished, then you're headed into the right direction." he informed them, though they'd figured as much.

"Then it seems our purpose here coincides." the Horseman said eventually. Both Vivian and Leo were taken aback.

"Hold up, why would _you _want to do restore Humanity?" Leo said, surprised by the statement.

"To redeem my brother."

"War? We actually met him on Earth, right before we headed here." Vivian told him. "He said he was not to blame for the near-extinction of our entire species."

"He _isn't._" the Horseman replied sharply.

"I never said I didn't believe him." she said quickly, the first signs of unease showing themselves as she folded her arms across her chest. She would like to think of herself as a pretty good judge of character, and War hadn't seemed like the reckless type to go and do whatever he pleased, no matter the consequences. Besides, if he was to blame, why would he go on a demon-killing-rampage anyway? He hadn't seemed like a bloodthirsty maniac either, so that couldn't explain it. The only logical thing to assume was that he was out for revenge – meaning he was telling the truth. "Even if I didn't, I wouldn't be stupid enough to stop him from killing some demons for us." The Horseman was silent for but a moment.

"Fair enough." He then turned to the Elder. "Now then, the Tree of Life?" He didn't need to ask explicitly for the old man to understand his question.

"Corruption plagues these lands, and my people are dying. Soon the Tree too will wither away and perish, together with the rest of this realm." the Elder responded, and coughed for a moment before continuing. "Seek out the Forge Sister. Ask her about the Fire of the Mountain. Help her, and she will help you reach the Tree."

For once, all three of them had no idea what the man was talking about. Leonard voiced this confusion, though not hoping for an answer.

"Sister what? Fire of the…?" He sighed and shook his head, as Vivian was mildly amused at his contemplations – then it happened. What seemed to be black ooze, the same kind that the eyeball monster consisted of, rose from the earth a few feet away from them and pulled together pieces of golden-colored material to form an odd construct; certainly not a friendly one. Several more accompanied the first one, the rattling of the pieces clicking together oddly disquieting.

'_Is this what Corruption brings?' _Leo thought, feeling disturbed just by looking at the strange creatures as he pulled his precious axe off his back while Vivian had already nocked an arrow and was carefully aiming, incredibly calm while one of them ran straight towards her. Leo was not concerned as he knew she could hold her own, and instead focused on the second one. Both of them, for now, ignored the Horseman who at first observed their actions.

Leo slammed his trusty axe, Bitch Killer, down on the head of one construct, and found the things to be rather durable as it withstood (though barely) the force in which he'd brought down his weapon. His axe had a very wide, traditional triangular blade with smooth edges which were stained with red– the blood of fallen enemies that refused to be washed away – and looked rather plain otherwise aside from the glowing blue emeralds in the handle, which was rather long and wrapped in white, bloodied bandages. Leo had, to this day, not managed to rip the bandages off and it seemed to be a unique property of the weapon. He wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that the edge of the blade was smooth even after fifty years of being used.

He blocked most of the counter-attacks of the creature as he wasn't much of a dodger since he wasn't fast nor agile enough. When it tried a heavy attack on him as Leo lowered his silver-bladed axe momentarily, giving the thing a fake opening, he quickly raised his weapon again and stunned the creature as the force of the blow struck right back. The Corrupted construct stumbled for a second and Leo took this chance to pull the axe back, and with a mighty swing attack its torso, almost spinning around to gather more momentum for his unrelenting attacks. It took four more blows to shatter the creature as it split into pieces and the ooze sunk back into the ground as it retreated from the crushed creature. So in the end, it took four or five full-force attacks to get rid of those things.

Vivian found it took four "regular" arrows – the ones which were extra sharp – to kill a construct. However, one arrow with an explosive rune aimed at the head of the creature, which consisted of the Corruption underneath the helm, was an instant kill, though it was hard to aim for the small opening in the head as most of it was covered with hard armor.

She never ran out of arrows, of course; that would be highly impractical in the situation they were in. There was one arrow in her belt quiver which she never used, which was one that had not a rune to increase the damage or speed or even had a special effect it delivered, but it had the rune that absorbed the essence of the objects (in this case, other arrows) around it, and duplicated them. As such, whenever Vivian pulled out an arrow, the copying-arrow would duplicate it immediately, rune and all. These duplicate arrows weren't quite as efficient as the original ones, but the difference was hardly noticeable. Gabriel had, when crafting this unique copying-arrow for her, nearly gotten a headache of the complexity of crafting such a thing (he'd never been that good with runes) and had expressly forbidden her from ever using it in battle or he'd have to make another one and God help him with doing it all over again.

When both Vivian and Leo had taken care of their targets, they noticed the Horseman – a scythe in each hand – making quick work of the rest of them. Both of them, though having not expected anything less, were still taken aback by how easily the constructs were defeated. He slid the scythes back on his belt, and turned his head towards the Elder who'd conjured a blue barrier around him, to avoid the constructs.

"You fight well, but this Corruption can't be beaten with a blade." he said to the Horseman.

"A hammer, then?" he only responded apathetically, glancing once in the direction of the two companions before walking away. Vivian looked at Leo (who was perfectly fine with the Horseman's departure), and nodded her head slightly in the Rider's direction before taking off herself and going after him. Leo had such a horrified look on his face that it was almost comical, for just a moment, before he let out a deep sigh and followed the reckless woman. Contrary to her composed and imperturbable demeanor, her actions were often those executed because of instinct or feeling – only when the woman was actually _not _doing anything and _only _busying herself with contemplation did she come up with any form of tactics.

'_And she says _I'm _the one to jump into things….'_

"May I ask what you're planning on doing?" Leo saw that the redhead had caught up with the Rider – he was going to take a "wild" guess and assume his name was Death, as if the mask and scythes weren't a complete give-away – and she was walking beside him, looking at him with that ever-steady gaze.

"I would say you may not, but you've already asked." came the wry answer to her question. Leo stayed a few feet behind, not feeling the need to address either of them.

"Are you going to speak to this Forge Sister the Elder spoke of?"

"I'm going to assume this is not just the most obvious question of all time and you actually have something meaningful to ask me."

"If so, we should work together."

"I don't need your help."

"I suppose you don't, but we're going the same direction anyway, so wouldn't it be more efficient to cooperate?" The Rider stopped walking for a moment to stare down at Vivian, who only barely reached his shoulder in length.

"You are free to do whatever you wish, but do not expect me to care for your fate should something befall you." he spoke with complete indifference. "No doubt you were aware of the risks when you entered this realm, and I certainly won't be holding your hand throughout the ordeal." With that said, he continued walking.

'_So basically he's saying, you're free to follow me as long as you don't get in my way. No teamwork, then.' _Leo looked at Vivian who frowned, displeased at the rejection, and continued to follow him. It vaguely reminded him of a puppy trying to get in the good graces of her callous master.

"Surely you can see that we could only increase your chances in fulfilling this quest." she argued composedly, though the discontentment was evident on her face. "Or should I just assume this is about your pride?"

'_This woman has a death wish.' _Leo took a moment to ponder about how strange that sentence sounded considering who she was talking to, as he followed the two and wondered if Death really was as patient as one would assume. By this point they had passed through the moss covered, hollowed out tree trunk already and were back by the giant statues. A crow flew by over his head, a faint, green glow radiating from its ruffled feathers as it flew towards a small building with a dome as its roof. The Horseman started walking in the same direction, and Leonard gazed curiously at the crow which was sitting on the edge of the dome, as if waiting.

"You'd be wise not to question the one trying to restore your kin, woman." he overheard Death say to Vivian, obviously not amused.

"Forgive me, I did not realize you'd be so easily offended." To that, as if making a sardonic remark wasn't bad enough, she added, "I also have a name. It's Vivian."

"It seems you're under the illusion that I care. Allow me to dispel it."

"Were you not taught any manners when you were younger?"

"Are all humans this abrasive? Perhaps I should just let your race rot in the Well if the only reward for my efforts are childish insults."

"Your resolve must be weak indeed if insults are all it takes to scare you away from your mission."

"It seems the Creator neglected to give you a sense of humor, next to common sense." She glared up at him, whereas he seemed entirely unfazed, maybe even slightly amused – it was almost like witnessing an ant attempting to insult an elephant – and when she opened her mouth once more to retort, Leonard had had just about enough.

"Vivian?" Leo interrupted as they walked up the stairs towards the building. He could hear metal clashing upon metal in steady rhythms and could only assume someone was busy forging a weapon or some armor. Most likely this _Forge _Sister the Elder had spoken of. "Maybe don't argue with the guy carrying two scythes? I guess it's just me, but it seems like a bad idea."

"Oh? So you _do _have common sense?" the Rider said in mock-surprise. Vivian glowered at him for a moment, which he completely ignored, before she glanced at Leo and nodded, though very irritated. Leo sighed and rubbed his forehead, feeling a headache coming up.

He could already tell those two were _not _going to get along.


End file.
